The Delta State Ministry of Health says it sealed 19 illegal private hospitals in the Delta North Senatorial District.
Dr. Daniel Omodon, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Asaba, the state capital, on Tuesday.
Omodon said that the closure was aimed at improving the quality of healthcare delivery in the state.
He said that the exercise would continue next week in Delta Central and Delta South Senatorial Districts.
Omodon added that the exercise was being sponsored by the state chapter of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
Omodon said: “The essence is to check quacks in the profession because if we allow them, the tendency is that the volume of deaths will increase.
“People who visit such places will not get the right treatment and materials.
“So primarily we want to ensure that people get the right services.”
He noted that some of the illegal outfits obtained registration forms since 2011 but never completed the registration exercise till date.
He, however, said that some of the sealed hospitals would be reopened when they complete the registration exercise.
Omodon lauded the government for its routine immunisation exercise, free maternal health care and treatment for children under the age of five and its rural health scheme.
According to him, all the healthcare programmes are geared toward reducing the financial burden of the people in the state.
Eagle Online