Lagos seals hospital for ‘transfusing unscreened blood’ to patients

The Lagos government has closed down a private hospital at Ago-Okota in the Oshodi-Isolo LGA over “unsafe blood transfusion” to patients.

Bodunrin Osikomaiya, executive secretary of Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS), said the hospital was shut down in collaboration with the state Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA).

Osikomaiya said the hospital was found to have collected unlabeled and unscreened blood, describing the act as “unprofessional medical practice”.

She said the act contradicts the blood transfusion service law, adding that the health facility had put the lives of the citizens at risk.

“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,” NAN quoted Osikomaiya as saying.

“The law 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.”

She said the details of the blood donors and transfusion recipients have been collected from the management of the facility.

She added that they are currently being tracked down to determine their clinical status.

She said the agency is working on strategies to educate health workers on unethical blood transfusion practices,

“This war against unwholesome blood transfusion practices involves and affects every citizen, and as a result, the LBTS will step up the tempo through continuous monitoring of all facilities concerned with blood transfusion,” she said.

The executive secretary added that the management of the hospital and its workers if found guilty, would be punished according to the law.