HEFAMAA moves to tighten Compliance as Franchise Operators undergo Training

The Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) has begun a three-day capacity-building programme for its franchise operators, aimed at strengthening compliance with regulatory standards and improving the monitoring of health facilities across Lagos State.

The training, holding in Ikeja, is designed to equip franchise organisations with the skills and knowledge required to effectively inspect health facilities, enforce approved standards and support the agency’s mandate of inspecting every registered facility at least twice a year for quality, safety and compliance.

Speaking with journalists on Wednesday at the event held in Ikeja, the Permanent Secretary of HEFAMAA, Dr. Abiola Idowu, said the programme was introduced to strengthen the capacity and performance of franchise operators and ensure strict adherence to approved standards across health facilities in the state.

She explained that the franchising model was adopted to expand the agency’s monitoring reach and guarantee effective oversight of health facilities statewide.

According to her, the initiative is structured to ensure that all registered facilities continue to meet the standards for which they were accredited, while promoting professionalism, safety and quality in healthcare delivery.

Idowu noted that franchise operators are expected to thoroughly assess facilities under their supervision, particularly in areas such as human resources, equipment, facility ambience and operational processes.

Reflecting on a recent evaluation, she said franchise operators achieved between 75 and nearly 80 per cent coverage in terms of facility visits last year.

However, she stressed that HEFAMAA’s assessment goes beyond the number of visits conducted.

She explained that equal importance is attached to the quality and accuracy of regulatory instruments submitted by operators, including closure notices, notices of compliance and reports of findings, which form the basis for enforcement actions taken by the agency.

Idowu added that the agency also evaluates how effectively operators communicate with facility owners and staff on HEFAMAA’s mandate and compliance requirements.

“We franchised the monitoring activities to private organisations to help us increase our coverage and ensure that we are able to visit every health facility in Lagos at least twice in a year to ensure that they’re maintaining the standards that we registered them for.

“So we’re training them, we want them to improve on their performance, we want to ensure that they are doing exactly what we want them to do in terms of looking at these facilities, ensuring that these facilities are maintaining their standards in terms of human resource, in terms of the equipment, the ambience of the facility and then their processes.

“The current training was introduced to address identified gaps, while franchise organisations that fell below expected performance levels would be queried and formally placed on notice to improve,” Idowu said.

She also warned franchise operators against exploiting their monitoring role for personal gain, stressing that any organisation found engaging in such practices would face strict sanctions, including legal prosecution and removal from the franchise programme, in order to protect the integrity of HEFAMAA’s monitoring framework.

On the legal framework guiding the operators, the Head of HEFAMAA’s Legal Unit, Antonio Oredipe, said the training included sessions to educate franchise operators on the provisions of the Health Sector Reform Law as it relates to the agency’s regulatory mandate.

She explained that while the HEFAMAA law provides the primary framework for monitoring and compliance, it is not the only applicable legislation.

According to her, cases involving criminal misconduct or breaches beyond the agency’s remit would also fall under the Criminal Law and the Administration of Justice Law of Lagos State.

Oredipe emphasised that compliance with HEFAMAA regulations does not shield operators from accountability under other relevant laws, noting that any violation of applicable provisions would attract legal consequences under the broader legislative framework.