Bill to Stop Re-use of Unsterilised Medical Instruments Passes Second Reading

By Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives at the plenary yesterday passed for second reading a bill seeking the establishment of decontamination centre in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to be charged with the responsibility of cleaning, disinfecting and sterilisation of medical devices and instruments prior to re-use.

The proposed legislation, sponsored by Hon. Ajilesoro Taofeek Abimbola, primarily seeks to prevent transmission of Iatrogenic infection also called hospital acquired infection.

Leading the debate on its general principles, Abimbola lamented that Nigerian hospitals do not conform to the required International Standards Organisation (ISO) guidelines to decontaminating medical devices.

He said there’s a growing awareness of the impact of hospital acquired infection or medical devices or equipment utilisation in Nigeria.

According to him, evidence is also increasing that this problem is affecting primary healthcare services in all the states in the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He explained that the current method of decontaminating procedure in Nigeria hospitals till now rely on routine autoclaving method, which is obsolete because spores of microbial agents are still on such surgical equipment.

The lawmaker said the bill, if passed, would ensure adequate and effective decontamination of medical devices to be in conformity with the required International Standard Organisation (ISO) standard of decontaminating medical devices as well as contribute immensely to lowering the prevalence of hospital acquired infection in Nigeria.

He said: “This bill is divided into 26 clauses, which seeks thus: Clause one of this bill makes provisions for the establishment of the decontamination centre and Clause two provides for the Governing Board of the Centre. Clause three enshrines the composition of the membership of the Governing Board and Clause four provides for the tenure of office of the member. Clause five provides for the condition of cessation of membership of the Board while Clause six gives power to the Board. Clause seven makes provisions for remuneration, allowances among others of members of the Board.

“Clause eight provides for the objectives of the Centre; Clause nine provides for the functions of the Centre while Clause 10 gives power to the Centre. Clause 11 creates the office of the Director-General who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre, and to be appointed by the president on the recommendation of the minister, and Clauses 12 and 13 made provisions for other.”