By Anietie Akpan
Cross River state government has sealed off an unregistered and unfit private clinic in the state.
The sealed health facility is Ben Damare Clinic and Maternity at Ekori community in Yakurr Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
A press release from the Information Officer, Kingsley Agim on behalf of the State Taskforce on Health Quality and Anti-Quackery, said this development is yet another action of the Governor Bassey Otu’s 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 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 caesarean sections in quick succession.
He pointed out that even the most cursory look at the clinic’s set-up shows pproblem and assured of his Taskforce’s resolve to rid the state health sector of quacks and their merchandise.
The Taskforce Coordinator maintained that medical practice in Cross River State must be done in strict compliance to laid down rules and regulations.
The proprietor of the clinic, one Dr Olisa Obi claimed he graduated from University of Port Harcourt and also works with an non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ebonyi state.
Obi said he will 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 Police at Ekori for further investigation, arraignment before the court for possible prosecution.
