Lagos Gov’t Shuts Hospital For Transfusing Unscreened Blood To Patients

The Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS) has sealed off a private hospital located at Ago-Okota in Oshodi-Isolo local government area of the state for engaging in unhealthy and unwholesome practice of collecting and transfusing unscreened and unlabelled blood to unsuspecting patients.

The Executive Secretary of the LSBTS, Dr. Bodunrin Osikomaiya, who disclosed this at the weekend, said that the health facility was sealed off by LSBTS and the State Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) following a tip-off by a concerned citizen.

“A concerned citizen had reached out to us to report the unwholesome practices of the facility. Following the tip off, and after thorough investigations, the enforcement teams of LSBTS and HEFAMAA, during their joint monitoring exercise in the area, visited the facility and confirmed to be true, the unwholesome, unprofessional and unethical medical practices and conduct of the hospital management,” he stated.

Osikomaiya added that the facility was shut for contravening the blood transfusion service law and for their unethical and unprofessional medical practice as well as putting the lives of unsuspecting citizens at risk.

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She said, “This facility was sealed for contravening the provision of the Blood Transfusion Service law, specifically, law 10, item 31 which states that no person within Lagos State shall transfuse blood into a patient unless such blood has been screened, tested, labelled by the state blood transfusion committee, and found to be negative for all transmissible diseases including HIV I and II, Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis and any other disease as may be deemed necessary by LSBTS.”

The Executive Secretary explained that the details of the blood donors and transfusion recipients have been retrieved from the management of the facility, adding that citizens who had been transfused with unscreened units of blood at the facility were being traced as part of protocol, in order to know their clinical health status, ascertain and ensure their health safety.

She noted that the management of the hospital and workers found culpable in the unwholesome act would be prosecuted in accordance with appropriate laws.

While noting that regulatory, monitoring and enforcement activities are part of the core mandates of the Blood Transfusion Service, Osikomaiya stated that the agency has rejigged its strategies in sanitising the state against unethical blood transfusion practices and has continued to wage war against unwholesome practice of transfusing unscreened blood in Lagos State.

She added: “The Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service was established with a mandate to provide safe blood and blood products for all who require it in accredited health facilities. This mandate is actualized through the active recruitment of voluntary blood donors, screening of every unit of blood for transfusion-transmissible infection, efficient processing of blood, and appropriate clinical use of blood.’’