The Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) has shut Vedic Lifecare Hospital for engaging unlicensed expatriates.
The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr. Abiola Idowu, who made the disclosure in her office in Alausa, Ikeja, explained that the hospital located at Plot 6, Olabanji Olajide Street, Lekki, was sealed for engaging expatriate staff who have not been certified to practice locally.
“The facility was shut down for engaging three foreign doctors and a nurse with unverified certificates and without licenses from any professional body”, she explained.
She, however, stated that the closure of the hospital does not affect the in-patients already admitted, stressing that the Agency is aware that some facilities are engaging Foreign-Based Transient Medical Doctors (FBTMD) who come into the State, stay for a period of time to provide medical care to patients and perform medical procedures before returning to their respective countries.
Also speaking, the Chairman, HEFAMAA Governing Board, Dr. Yemisi Solanke-Koya, noted that the practice raises consequential concerns regarding the regulatory oversight of healthcare in the State.
The concerns, according to her, focus on whether the facilities where the FBTMDs provide medical care are registered with and meet the standards required by HEFAMAA; whether the FBTMDs themselves possess the requisite credentials and experience required to practice the designated specialities they travel to the State for and whether the provisions made for the realm of continuity of care of the patients when the FBTMDs leave the State meet the standard of care.
The Chairman warned that hospitals in Lagos should desist from using foreigners whose certificates and licenses have not been verified by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
She, however, indicated that the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, has directed the Agency to implement an FBTMD policy that will ensure that FBTMDs are approved by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to practice medicine in the country.
He added that such approval must be submitted and duly registered with HEFAMAA prior to commencement of medical practice in the State to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of Lagosians and hold the facilities engaging FTDMBs accountable.
