Kano shuts 35 private health facilities over violations

Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf. Photo: Kano State Government

The Kano State Private Health Institutions Management Agency has shut down more than 35 private health facilities for regulatory violations in the last 12 months.

The Acting Director-General of PHIMA, Hajiya Khadijah Sa’id, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Tuesday.

Sa’id, who is also the agency’s Director of Administration and General Services, said the sanctions were part of efforts to enforce standards and protect residents from unsafe healthcare practices.

She identified operating without a licence, failure to renew annual registration and employing unqualified personnel as major violations uncovered during routine inspections.

“We sanctioned over 100 facilities for one mistake or the other. But those that committed gross violations that we cannot overlook, we shut down over 35,” she said.

The acting director-general explained that some facilities were temporarily closed to allow their proprietors to correct identified violations before reopening.

She, however, said facilities found guilty of serious breaches could be permanently delisted, with the responsible proprietors barred from registering another facility using their professional licences.

“Once a facility is delisted, it will not be registered again. The person holding the professional licence will also not be allowed to register another facility,” she said.

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Sa’id said PHIMA’s regulatory mandate covered private hospitals, clinics, nursing and maternity homes, diagnostic laboratories, dental centres, beauty salons, spas, fitness centres and practitioners of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine.

She added that the agency collaborated with other government agencies and security operatives to identify and shut down illegal health facilities across the state.

According to her, an inter-agency task force established by Gov. Abba Yusuf recently identified a clinic that PHIMA had sealed and delisted but which was subsequently reopened at another location.

She said the agency was strengthening routine inspections to ensure compliance with licensing requirements and professional standards across Kano State’s 44 local government areas.

Sa’id said additional funding and operational vehicles would enable PHIMA to expand inspection coverage and strengthen enforcement across the state.

She urged private health facility operators to obtain the required licences, renew their registrations promptly and ensure that only qualified personnel provide healthcare services.