Rt. Hon. (Elder) Aniekan Uko Speaking for IBESIKPO ASUTAN State Constituency in this hallow chamber

A PRIVATE MEMBER BILL
FOR A LAW TO MAKE PROVISIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND CONTROL OF PRIVATE HOSPITALS AND OTHER HEALTHCARE FACILITIES IN AKWA IBOM STATE AND FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH 2016

#SPONSORED_BY : Rt. Hon.(Elder) Aniekan Uko, Member representing Ibesikpo Asutan State Constituency in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly will have its PUBLIC HEARING  on Friday 3rd March 2017
VENUE: Old Chapel, AKHA Complex.
TIME : 10. 00 HRS

   You can follow me here as I talk on the General Principle of the bill.
When  I opened the debate on my self-sponsored Bill and God willing and by the support of my Honorable colleagues, the bill went through 2nd Reading and was committed to committee on Health for futher legislative action.
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HEAR ME:

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Colleagues, In leading the debate on the general principle of the above mentioned bill, I wish to first and foremost thank Mr. Speaker for this privilege given to me to present this life touching piece of legislation, and also most importantly acknowledge the co-operation and support of my dear colleagues with regards to the anticipated passage of this bill into law.

Mr. Speaker, you will agree with me that a hospital is supposed to be a healthcare institution providing treatment to patients with specialized staff and equipment; a place where the sick get cured and not a place where people are sent to their early graves. Unfortunately, in Awa Ibom state today, there are so many substandard private hospitals and other healthcare facilities who are neither registered with the ministry of health nor their owners possess the necessary qualifications to operate private healthcare facilities.

Mr. Speaker, over the years, there are hundreds of these illegal facilities operating in our villages and in almost all the local government areas of our state. The result of their existence has been tale of woes for the unfortunate citizens whose lots have been to patronize these death chambers called private hospitals. It is indeed a sad manifestation of the long years of decay and neglect that has characterize the healthcare systems in our country, where government owned health hospitals have been reduced to mere consulting clinics. However, that is an issue for another day.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable colleagues, it is worthy of note that the neglect of the government owned health institutions became a blessing in disguise for these business men, who seized the opportunity to exploit the people while providing substandard services and paying scant attention to the safety and health concerns of their clients. This situation becomes more worrisome when several unlicensed operators open "shops", sometimes clandestinely in buildings unmarked and in most cases not design for health services. Today, and most especially in our villages, we have some of these private health facilities in private rooms and in various unambiguous places. It is indeed a shame that unscrupulous people will commit the original sin of playing with people’s lives for pecuniary gains. This Bill therefore seeks to set the criteria for the establishment of private hospitals and other healthcare facilities in our dear state.
Mr. Speaker, it is disheartening to note the impunity with which the owners of these healthcare facilities operate. Besides not being registered and with the half-baked personnel, they exist in terrible conditions unfit for the status of a health clinic. The rot has gone on unchecked for too long and I believe this probably explains the reason for the indiscriminate proliferation of these substandard health institutions in the state. Countless lives have been lost on the unethical practices of these health institutions. There have been reported case of negligence occasioned by incompetence on the part of these hospitals which can only be compared to death chambers. It therefore becomes imperative that a legislation be put to check the activities of these merchant of death.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable colleagues, examples abound to support unethical practise of these unscrupulous elements. Sometimes in 2006, a couple who had waited for some years without the fruits of womb visited one of such maternity homes where the woman in questioned lost her life and that of her unborn baby. It was alleged that the doctor who was meant to attend to her left her in labour for a whole day because he had a call from another hospital. The most annoying aspect is the fact that he left her in the hands of an illiterate midwife to attend to her.

Mr. Speaker, just recently too, the police arrested  the indigene of this state who ran a private hospitals for ten(10) years in Gwarinpa area of Abuja, where he offered surgeries and antenatal care using forged certificates. The culprit had opened the hospital in 2006 as a surgeon using forged practice licence just when it became clear that the medical dental  council of Nigeria (MDCN) would not grant him licence, on ground that the schools he claimed he graduated from in Enugu was unapproved to train students in alternative medicine. The Culprit told the police that in 2002, he paid Fifteen thousand naira (N15, 000) to one administrative official of the university of Nigeria teaching hospital to get him a forged MDCN practice Certificate. Some other forged documents of this culprit showed that he attended an update course by the west African college of surgeon in 2001, and a post graduate course on the scientific basis obstetrics and gynaecology in 2002, but his 1990 Senior School certificate from Eastern Nsit secondary school Odot showed he had no pass in any of his six subject apart from an A3 in geography.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable colleagues, also in 2014, a private clinic in Ikot Obio Odongo here in our state was sealed by men of the State Security Service, while the medical chief was arrested for opening illegally. The culprit was arrested following members of the public who were not satisfied with the treatment from the clinic, and who said that he had been carrying out surgery and abortions since 2010. The culprit admitted to have been trained as a nurse in Calabar, Cross River State, and later secured a job at St. Luke’s Hospital Anua as a registered nurse. However, investigation showed that none of his facilities (Hospital and mortuary) had been registered by the medical and dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). He was not a doctor and they could not ascertain whether he was actually a nurse since no certificate he showed substantiated his claims. The only certificate the security operatives saw was the certificate of Excellence award given to him by the youths of his area. Further investigation showed that he had 15 apprentices and dozens of quack nurses.
Until the time of that incidence, nobody knew that he was not a doctor.
Mr .Speaker, it becomes very necessary for the state ministry of health to co-operate with the medical and Dental council of Nigeria, Nursing and Midwifery council of Nigeria and other Federal health agencies responsible for the certification/licencing of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to make it easy for them to verify the legal status of health professionals working in our various communities. Sadly, our state ministry of Health do not have an agency to monitor private hospitals and other healthcare facilities operating in our state especially in the rural areas.
Mr. Speaker in Lagos state, there is the Lagos state health facility monitoring and accreditation agency whose effort has helped to expose several illegal private hospital in Lagos state. In 2013, the agency shut down 80 illegal health facilities operating in different part of Lagos state. Also in 2013, about 20 illegal private hospitals in Niger State were closed down by the Niger State Ministry of health for operating without strict adherence to standard medical practices. In Asaba the Delta State capital, no fewer than twenty five (25) illegal private hospitals and maternity homes have been sealed by the state Ministry of health. Also in 2015, the Nasarawa state Ministry of health shut down 126 illegal health facilities in only Karu Local Government Area of the state. And just last month, the Ogun state ministry of health closed down twelve (12) privately owned illegal hospital in Ijebu-Ode to check quackery.
Mr. Speaker, the reason for making reference to these states is to buttress the fact that there are laws regulating private health facilities in all these states and as such Akwa Ibom could not be an exception. How long shall we continue to lose precious lives to the activities of unscrupulous people in our midst ? These merchants of death do not care for the lives of their patients. In some cases, they recycle such items as syringe which they use on several patients at a time.
Mr. Speaker, the most brazen of the activities of these ubiquitous hospitals is that they conduct illegal abortions and complicated operations which often results in heavy loss of lives of  their patients. How can one explain a situation where patients are cut open under the most unhygienic conditions? Sometimes operations are conducted with candle light and without the provision of anesthesia. So the patient is made to go through excruciating pains which may ultimately lead to death. These incidences sometimes go unreported and this is the sad aspect of it. The relatives of victims in most cases are poor and cannot pursue legal or other options to redress the injustice done to them by these charlatans.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Colleagues, the unethical practices of some private healthcare providers have brought untold hardship to citizens who patronize them and they should not be left to bear the brunt of their suffering alone. We should ensure that private healthcare providers adhere strictly to lay down regulations. There should be a database for private healthcare providers and mechanism must be put in place for monitoring of their activities. There is equally the need for sustained public enlightenment across the state. The people need to know what to look out for when visiting a private healthcare facility. They should be encouraged to ask those who treat them necessary questions to ensure they are being attended to by the right health officials.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Colleagues, this bill therefore seeks to repeal the 1955 law for registration of of hospitals, and to also empower the state Ministry of health to:
(i) Prescribe the minimum standard and requirement for all healthcare facilities in line with the standard set by the various healthcare professional bodies.
(ii) Prescribe the criteria for the establishment of private hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Akwa Ibom State.
(iii) Set up an inspectorate unit in the ministry of health with the responsibility of monitoring and reporting unlicensed healthcare facilities.
(iiii) Criminalize the operation of illegal healthcare facilities.
(v) Penalize healthcare facilities with unqualified healthcare personnel
(vi) Ensure that qualified medical practitioners only are granted licences to operate.
To this end Mr. Speaker, it is apparent that unregistered and substandard private hospitals and other healthcare facilities are chambers of death for unsuspecting members of the public. They contribute in no small measure to the high infant morbidity and mortality rates in our state. They have all of a sudden transmitted from mere consulting units to glorified mortuaries. They are often manned by quack doctors who never attended any medical school. Some are drop-outs while others are nurses claiming to be doctors or chemistry teachers claiming to be laboratory scientist. Nowadays, it is common mostly in our villages, where ordinary drug sellers (chemists) are seen with surgical blades and are addressed as DOCTORS. Clinics that ought to function as a referral centre, to hear complaints and refer patients to the appropriate hospitals, now have one doctor, a general doctor, a superhuman doctor, who performs the role of a gynaecologist, a neurologist, a dentist, an eye surgeon and general medicine. All these must have to stop. We cannot afford to close our eyes and lips while these unethical practice thrive in our communities.
We will be doing our people the greatest disservice if we allow these merchants of death reap lives out of innocent citizens of the state. I therefore call on my dear colleagues to please give their full support to this bill as doing so would save many lives of unsuspecting members of the society who are deceived into patronising these facilities.
Once again, I want to thank you Mr. Speaker and my dear Honourable colleagues for supporting this Bill and I have no doubt in my mind that this bill will be passed into law. Thank you for being part of this history of “LIFE PROTECTORS” to our people.

I remain in my Honor

Rt. Hon. (Elder) Aniekan Uko
Speaking for IBESIKPO ASUTAN State Constituency in this hallow chamber.