By Joyce Ekeh
The Lagos State Government has inaugurated a 39-member Task Force on Clinical Governance and Patient Safety, giving it three months to develop a statewide framework aimed at improving standards of care, strengthening accountability and reducing risks to patients across public and private health facilities.
The move makes Lagos the first state in Nigeria to domesticate the national clinical governance and patient safety initiative, according to the state government.
Inaugurating the task force yesterday at Sojourn by Genesis Hotel, Ikeja, Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said a system-wide approach was necessary because the state’s healthcare delivery is dominated by private providers.
Abayomi said there was approximately a 10-to-one ratio of private to government health facilities in Lagos, although government facilities account for as much as 40 per cent of patient encounters.
“We are not the Ministry of Health for government facilities alone; we are the Ministry of Health for Lagos,” he said.
He said the new framework would cover both formal and informal sectors, including traditional medicine practitioners, patent medicine vendors and community pharmacies, particularly as task-shifting and task-sharing become increasingly important in addressing manpower shortages.
The Commissioner said clinical governance must strengthen clinical audits, evidence-based medicine, digital health tools and continuous professional development, while also protecting healthcare workers from violence.
He identified fever management as a possible pilot area, saying the state must move away from presumptive malaria treatment as the disease declines.
“It is no longer appropriate to make a clinical diagnosis of malaria without appropriate testing,” Abayomi said.
Framework to cover seven pillars
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Health and Chairman of the Task Force, Dr. Kemi Ogunyemi, said the body would develop a Clinical Governance and Patient Safety Framework covering minimum facility standards, incident reporting and learning, patient feedback and redress, as well as indicators for statewide implementation.
“Behind every incident report is a person who came to us for help,” Ogunyemi said.
She said the Task Force would operate through seven pillars: leadership and governance; clinical effectiveness; risk management; patient and public involvement; clinical audit; staff development and management; and information management.
Each pillar will have a dedicated subcommittee, with members assigned according to their expertise.
Ogunyemi said the three-month assignment would build on existing state and national policies while identifying gaps requiring new systems or interventions.
She stressed that the initiative was not designed to impose arbitrary standards on healthcare providers.
“We are not seeking to dictate standards. We are using the best available evidence to determine what is appropriate for Lagos State and what will ensure that patients are safe,” she said.
Build on what is already working
Ogunyemi said the initiative followed the national conversation on clinical governance and patient safety triggered by the highly publicised death of a celebrity’s son in a private health facility.
She said the incident highlighted systemic challenges requiring coordinated action at both national and subnational levels.
According to her, Lagos’ existing regulatory structures, particularly the Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA), would provide a foundation for implementing the new framework.
“The objective is not to change the way the system works for the sake of change,” Ogunyemi said, adding that existing initiatives would be strengthened and coordinated rather than discarded.
Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Dayo Lajide, described the initiative as timely, saying it aligned with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s national direction.
“Clinical governance is that discipline that makes the expectation a property of the system, rather than a matter of individual conscience,” Lajide said.
She charged members of the task force to work within the three-month timeline and participate actively in their assigned pillars.
Lajide also assured members that the Ministry would provide a technical secretariat to coordinate documentation, administration and continuity throughout the exercise.
Seven pillars to drive reforms
Permanent Secretary, Health Service Commission, Dr. Olufemi Omololu, said clinical governance would bring together several quality-improvement initiatives already operating in Lagos, including the Service Charter, Clinical Quality Improvement, Total Quality Management, 5S and Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR).
He described clinical governance as a system for ensuring safe, effective, patient-centred, accountable and continuously improving healthcare.
Omololu said the framework would promote standard treatment guidelines, clinical audits, incident reporting, patient feedback, staff development and better use of health information.
He cautioned against turning the system into a punitive mechanism, citing the “no name, no blame” approach under MPDSR as an example of how health workers could report failures and participate in finding solutions.
Technical Secretary of the Task Force, Dr. Tolu Ajomale, said the body would immediately begin members’ pillar sign-up and data documentation, followed by the nomination of chairpersons, deputies and secretaries for the seven workstreams.
He said the Task Force would hold monthly plenary meetings to assess progress, with the next physical meeting scheduled for approximately one month from the inauguration.
The 39-member body comprises representatives of the Ministry of Health and its agencies, tertiary and general hospitals, professional associations, private healthcare providers, civil society, legal services and subject-matter experts.
The membership includes representatives of HEFAMAA, LASUTH, LSBTS, LASAMBUS and LASEMS, as well as the Medical Guild, Nigerian Association of Nigerian Midwives, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, JOHESU, private medical and nursing practitioners and the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria.
The task force is expected to submit recommendations that will form the basis of a statewide Clinical Governance and Patient Safety Framework, with the ultimate goal of embedding uniform standards, incident learning, patient feedback, staff development and data-driven decision-making across Lagos’ healthcare system.
