C’River Gov’t seals clinic over high rate of mother/child deaths during delivery

The Government of Cross River has sealed Ben Damare Clinic and Maternity at Ekori community in Yakurr Local Government Area, having been declared unfit to deliver health services by the state health authority.

The development is yet another action of the Governor Bassey Otu-led administration to maintain healthcare quality and exterminate quackery and other untoward practices in the health sector of the State, having clamped down on a quack Trado-Medical trade fair in Ogoja a few weeks ago.

The Coordinator of the State Taskforce on Health Quality and Anti-Quackery, Dr Dan Abubakar, said the closure became necessary after confirming from the State Ministry of Health that the clinic was not on the list of registered facilities in Cross River.

Dr Abubakar said the Taskforce alongside a team of policemen from Ekori Police Station, carried out the operation after the community raised the alarm on increasing maternal and infant mortality rates, having lost a mother and her twin babies and another mother and child after cesarian sections in quick succession.

He pointed out that even the most cursory look at the clinic’s set-up shows problems, and assured of his Taskforce’s resolve to rid Cross River State health sector of quacks and their merchandise.

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The Taskforce Coordinator maintained that medical practice in Cross River State must be done in strict compliance with laid down rules and regulations.

The proprietor of the clinic, Dr Olisa Obi, claims he graduated from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and also works with a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) in Ebonyi state.

In his reaction, Obi said he would provide available documents to prove his facility was duly registered to deliver health services.

On the spate of maternal and infant deaths in the facility, the embattled clinic owner cited complications as the major pointer to those occurrences, adding that in such situations, regrettable as they seem, death could occur.

After formal written statements by the Taskforce Coordinator, the clinic owner and his manager have both been detained by the Police at Ekori for further investigation and arraignment before the court for possible prosecution.