The Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA) has shut down four health facilities in Kumasi for operating without licence.

A team, led by the Registrar of HeFRA, Dr Philip Bannor, closed the facilities on Monday 22nd February 2021 in an enforcement exercise being conducted by the agency.

The team, comprising officers of HeFRA, the police and personnel from the Ghana National Ambulance Service stormed the facilities unannounced and moved to close them after they had failed to produce their licences.

The affected institutions are the Lake Road Clinic at Atonsu specialized in illegal abortion, De-Castro Health Centre at Sawaba, Krispat Hearing Centre at Oforikrom and Echoscane Digonostic Centre at Tafo Opposite the Tafo Government hospital.

Per the law, a person shall not operate a health facility unless it is licensed under the act.

The Health Institutions and Facilities Act 2011, Act 829, which established the HeFRA, empowers it to shut down any health facility which does not meet standards established by the law.

After day one of the three days exercise five persons were arrested by the taskforce with the support of police from the Ashanti regional command.

The Lake Road facility which is said to be conducting illegal abortion, on the other hand, had its gates locked with no official of the facility present when the team from HeFRA got there except one Clint.

The team pasted closure notices at the entrances of the clinics to officially signify that the facilities had been shut down.

Briefing the media after the exercise, Dr Bannor said the move had become necessary because it was noticed that some health establishments were operating below standard and many of them were either not licensed or registered with the agency.

He said all the institutions affected were given more than six months’ notice to register with the agency but had failed to do so hence the crackdown.

All the five persons arrested by the taskforce were brought to the Ashanti regional Police command for the police to take their statement.

Dr. Bannor said all the suspects arrested will face the law in court to serve as deterrent to others who are operating health facilities without appropriate licences.

The three days exercise which started on 22 February will end on 24th February, 2021.