By SODIQ OYELEKE

Lagos State Government has accredited three private hospitals to manage COVID-19 cases in the state.

A statement from the Lagos State Ministry of Health quoted the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, as disclosing this at a news briefing to give situation report on COVID-19 management in the state.

Abayomi stressed that one of the accredited private hospitals is already admitting patients, adding that the other two will soon start admission and management of patients.

He said, “They have passed the biosecurity compliance test. They have made modifications to their hospitals so that their staff and other patients are not put in danger or exposed to a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.

“Those private hospitals have passed the test and we are just in the process of issuing them with accreditation certificate so that they can start managing COVID19 patients in the private sector.

“However, even if they are managing COVID19 in the private sector, it still comes under the supervision of the Lagos State Government Ministry of Health.

“Also, information about every patient managed by the hospitals must be made available to us so that we can record it in our database.

“COVID-19 remains a public crisis and all public crises are managed and supervised by the Lagos state government and by extension the federal government of Nigeria,” Abayomi said.

The names of the private facilities were not given in a copy of the press release obtained by our correspondent.

Meanwhile, Abayomi described as illegal the management of COVID-19 patients by private facilities in the state without the knowledge and approval of the government.

The commissioner stressed that every COVID-19 patient in the state must be known to the government for adequate data capturing.

He said, “If you are managing COVID-19 without government permission and we are not capturing your cases in our database, you are performing an illegal act, according to the laws of Lagos State.

“So, if you want to manage COVID-19 in Lagos State, we are not saying you cannot. All you need to do is to submit an application and we will visit your facility to ensure that you have the required equipment and specialised personnel to manage COVID-19 cases. If you can demonstrate that you can do all these, then we will give you the approval to manage the disease.” (Saturday PUNCH)

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