Drugs

Government seals hospital prescribing analgin in Ibadan

By Paul Adepoju

October 31, 2017

A patient with fever in Ibadan was being injected with analgin, four other painkillers and four antibiotics.

In its bid to sanitise the private health sector, the Oyo state’s Task Force on private health facilities last Friday sealed a hospital in Apete area for prescribing analgin for a patient.

The task force, which got to the hospital, operated by a community health extension worker, found out that the patient was being administered with the banned drug, alongside other four other painkillers and four antibiotics by intramuscular routes.

The male patient who is a civil servant had initially made a deposit of N10, 000 at the hospital for treatment of fever.

The task force later sealed the hospital after referring the patient to the nearest government hospital.

Also visited by the task force were nine other health facilities and medical laboratory services.

The task force after visiting the facilities closed three other hospitals for offences such as non-registration of the premises, unhygienic hospital environment, improper disposal of medical wastes and failure to have qualified medical staff on ground.

Chairman, Oyo State Task force on Private Medical Practice, Dr Adebisi Ayoola while speaking, noted that no hospital was expected to give analgin, adding that what was being done at the affected hospital was more of a guess work.

“There are rules and regulations for all private health facilities; and no hospital is expected to administer drugs through intramuscular route,’’ he said.

According to him, although nurses and community health workers were allowed to register and operate a health facility, they must not practice beyond what the law stipulated.