A Senior Consultant Gynaecologist, Dr. Babatunde Ogunkinle, has explained that fertility clinics need a regulatory body to adequately monitor their activities and to ensure quality service delivery.

 

He said this at a press conference organised by The Bridge Clinic, Lagos, to sensitise the general public on ensuring quality management system in health care practice.

 

Ogunkinle said, “At the moment, fertility clinics in Nigeria have no federal body monitoring them. This means there are no regulations and no issuance of licences.

 

“As members of the Society of Gynaecologists of Nigeria, we are still pushing for adequate government regulations so that there can be required standards as we have in the developed countries.”

 

In her own remarks, the clinic’s Head of Laboratory, Mrs. Dayo Yusuf, complained that “In some IVF clinics, you could have the transfer of more than two embryos to the patient; you also may not have a witness on standby to ensure that the couple’s sperm and eggs are the ones used for them. IVF is expensive really because we ensure that all the materials are single-used; you cannot use one for two couples.”

 

The Quality Management System officer, Mr. Adebowale Ojekale, said the essence of the public health enlightenment was to ensure that patients get value for their money.

 

The Bridge Clinic was the first to achieve conception and births by Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection and surgically collected sperm with the successful delivery of over a thousand babies.

 

BY OLALEYE ALUKO

PUNCH