The Lagos state government has said that it is considering private hospitals to start managing COVID-19 patients, after it had condemned it some months back.
Sources said that the change in decision may not be unconnected to the inadequate bed space in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, while addressing the media said that the state has already accredited three trusted private hospitals to manage positive cases.
He noted that the accredited hospitals have passed the biosecurity compliance test.
According to him, biosecurity test is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases.
The commissioner added that notwithstanding, the management of COVID-19 cases is still be under the supervision of the state ministry of health.
“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,” he said.
It would be recalled that in April, the Commissioner gave a stern warning to private hospitals not to admit any COVID-19 patients following the death of a COVID-19 patient in a private facility.
“We are not encouraging the private sector to manage COVID-19 at this point for a number of reasons. It is still an issue of the state and national security that cases of COVID-19 are managed in recognised facilities,” he warned.
As at yesterday June 6, the number of COVID-19 positive cases went up by 389 with nine new deaths bringing the total number of cases in Nigeria to 12,233.
Meanwhile, Lagos state still maintain the lead with 66 new cases bringing total number of cases in the state to 5729 as at yesterday.
