A clinic in Kumasi, suspected to be performing illegal abortions, has been shut down by the Health Facility Regulatory Agency (HeFRA).
The Lake Road Clinic is among nine facilities locked up in a two-day exercise aimed at sanitising the health service delivery sector.
All nine were found to be unlicensed with some recruiting persons with no training in the health profession.
READ ALSO:
HeFRA, through its intelligence, picked information that the Lake Road Clinic conducted illegal abortions and other procedures without the requisite licensing.
At the time of the visit, the inspection team picked unhygienic and unregistered medical equipment used in surgical procedures.
Personnel performing medical services were also unlicensed.
“We saw several equipment that seemed were being used but have not been washed or cleaned. We saw the operating table and the state it was in. It wasn’t in the best of shape.
“We didn’t meet the Doctor that works there but the people that were picked didn’t have a license to say they were nurses or whatever,” Registrar for HeFRA, Dr Philip Bannor, who led the operation, said.
At the Mediscience Laboratory at Bantama, the owner of the facility claimed to have the necessary qualification to man the facility but failed to provide documents.
Ben Will also claimed to have started the necessary procedure to acquire a license.
Nonetheless, the facility was closed down with Mr Will being picked up for further investigations.
Osbon diagnostics, Sonoscan Diagnostic Centre and Focus Medical Diagnostics were among facilities shutdown on the second day of the exercise.
Others included Krispat Hearing Centre, De-Castro Home Care and Echoscan Diagnostics Centre.
Dr Bannor explained that the exercise has the goal of sanitising the system and ensuring the safety of the public.
“We don’t have interest in closing people’s businesses down. We want more private participation in the sector but we want to make sure that they adhere to quality standards,” he added.
“If they are unlicensed, we don’t know the equipment they are using we don’t even know the quality of the imaging they are giving you and the one who is doing the interpretation of the imaging they capture. These all affect the quality of care. It ultimately affects the consumer,” he added.
HeFRA was established in 2011 by the Health Institutions and Facilities Act, 2011 (Act 829), to license health facilities for the provision of public and private healthcare services.
It is also mandated to register and monitor operations of all health facilities to set standards for quality healthcare delivery in all facilities across the country.