Six private health facilities in Lagos that had been secretly attending to rich, patients, have been revealed.
One of the private hospitals, First Cardiology Consultants Hospital, Ikoyi, was where late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, was treated for the virus until his death was announced on Friday.
The others are St. Edwards Hospital, Ajah, Premier Specialist Hospital, Victoria Island, Vedic Lifecare Hospital, Lekki, County Hospital, Ogba, and St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos.
The involvement of these private hospitals in the treatment of Coronavirus cases was despite the insistence by Minister of Health in Nigeria, Osagie Ehanire, that they will never be given approval for such.
At a forum last, Ehanire had said, “Treating of private patients is not allowed. It is risky.
“Coronavirus is one of the most easily transmitted diseases you can think of. So, it is not allowed to treat Coronavirus privately.”
Apart from Kyari, a medical doctor, Emeka Chugbo, was also killed by the virus after contracting it from a patient he was treating in a private hospital.
Already, the Lagos State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association has warned doctors and medical practitioners against receiving and treating COVID-19 patients in their private facilities, stressing that such practice could put the lives of health workers in danger.
NMA, in statement signed by Saliu Oseni and Moronkola Ramon, Chairman and Secretary respectively, said there could be an explosion in the number of infections in the state and the country at large if private hospitals continued to treat Coronavirus patients.
All the named private hospitals are supposed to have been closed down by government, according to experts, but had been left to continue to operate because they served the interest of the elites and rich in the country.
