State carries out first healthcare revalidation exercise in 26 years

The government of Akwa Ibom state in southern Nigeria has given private clinics and other health care facilities six months to revalidate their registration. According to the state's Commissioner for Health, Dr Ememabasi Bassey, the revalidation exercise was long overdue because it had not been done in the last 26 years.


He noted that many of the previous owners of private health facilities had since died or retired and their establishments were being run by quacks or non-qualified persons with very poor standards.
Bassey said following the revalidation, the state would have a directory of all private and public health facilities to ensure that “sanity is brought into the system.”

“The Ministry is stepping up the monitoring exercise of both public and private health facilities for greater effectiveness,” he told members of the Private Health Facilities Revalidation Committee.

The Commissioner commended members of the committee for enhancing health standards in the state.
He said the exercise would enable the public have access to health care services.
He said the State Governor, Godswill Obot Akpabio, was passionate about the sector and had spent much to bring in modern facilities to actualize his vision.

The Chairperson of the revalidation committee, Dr Comfort Archibong, commended the Commissioner and Permanent Secretary for setting up the committee, which is the first since the creation of the state.

She said that the revalidation exercise was to ensure that all private health facilities in the state operated with safe and standard conditions.

She urged the operators to ensure that they adhere to standards set by the Ministry.

Source: CAJ News Agency