Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, has closed down Vedic Lifecare Hospital, Lekki, Lagos, for engaging three unlicensed foreign doctors and a nurse.
HEFAMAA, however, noted that it would be introducing a policy to regulate Foreign-Based Transient Medical Doctors.
The Agency, in a statement by its Head, Public Affairs, Uthman Ayokunle, stated that HEFAMAA Executive Secretary, Dr. Abiola Idowu, said that the hospital, located at Plot 6, Olabanji Olajide Street, Lekki, was sealed for engaging expatriate staff who had not been certified to practice in Nigeria.
According to her, “The facility was shut down for engaging three foreign doctors and a nurse with unverified certificates and without licences from any professional body.”
Idowu noted that the closure would not affect the in-patients already admitted.
She further revealed that the Agency was aware that some facilities were engaging Foreign-Based Transient Medical Doctors, who come into the state, stay for a period of time to provide medical care to patients and perform medical procedures before returning to their respective countries.
Chairman, HEFAMAA Governing Board, Dr. Yemisi Solanke-Koya, noted that the practice raised consequential concerns regarding the regulatory oversight of healthcare in the state.
Solanke-Koya expressed concerns on whether the facilities where the FBTMDs provide medical care were registered and met the standards required by HEFAMAA; “whether the FBTMDs themselves possess the requisite credentials and experience required to practice the designated specialities they travel to the State for and whether the provisions made for the realm of continuity of care of the patients when the FBTMDs leave the State meet the standard of care.”
She warned hospitals in Lagos to desist from using foreigners whose certificates and licenses have not been verified by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
She stated that the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, had directed that the Agency should implement an FBTMD policy that would ensure that such foreign doctors and medical personnel are approved by the MDCN to practise in the country.
She added that the commissioner demanded that such approval must be submitted and be duly registered with HEFAMAA prior to commencing the practice of medicine in the state to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of Lagosians and hold the facilities engaging FTDMBs accountable.