The Ogun State Government has sealed 10 unapproved diagnostic centres, laboratories and alternative medicine centres among other medical facilities located in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, led a medical team comprising personnel of the Hospital Services Department of the Ministry, those of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), and others to the local government area.
The team had set out to inspect private hospitals and other medical facilities in Ado-Odo/Ota, where six persons were reportedly arrested for quackery and handed over to the police.
According to Coker, the operation followed tip-off about the influx of quacks in Ado-Odo/Ota from Lagos State.
A statement on Wednesday by Goke Gbadamosi, the Press Officer, Ogun State Ministry of Health, quoted Coker as saying that “some of the facilities we visited were opened by doctors and nurses who don’t oversee them”.
The Commissioner disclosed that the team visited diagnostic centres, laboratories and alternative medicine centres “operating outside their scope by administering intravenous drugs and IV fluids among other things”.
“We have apprehended them and handed them over to the police for prosecution,” she said.
Coker stressed that the Governor Dapo Abiodun government would no longer tolerate the activities of quacks, particularly those in border areas between Lagos and Ogun.
She added that the inspection of facilities would continue across the state.
“We are aware of the proliferation of quacks here and have declared zero tolerance for them,” she declared.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, in Ogun State, Dr. Azim Ashimi, condemned the influx of quacks in the state, describing it as disheartening, adding that it had led to needless loss of innocent lives.
Ashimi said his association had resolved to deal with quacks in the health sector, while also collaborating with the state government to curb the practice
