LAHORE: Quacks are playing with the health of the masses, and in quite a few cases under the patronage of qualified physicians and with the connivance of the district health authorities.
The anti-quackery campaigns are apparently falling short of attaining the desired results since the menace has no particular face and place when stern actions can be taken against quacks.
The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) had shuttered the businesses of over 36,000 ‘fake’ physicians, it should be mentioned, while PHC enforcement teams have repeatedly raided dubious outlets.
This fear of the authorities has made phony medics shift their setups to back streets in congested localities, unnamed shops and houses, and quite a few of them are now ‘mobile service providers’. Resultantly, the main lanes and major urban areas of the cities are free of quacks’ centres.
Around four years ago, when the anti-quackery campaign got a major boost, a PHC official had told the court of the then chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Saqib Nisar, that more than 80,000 quacks were working in Punjab, which was as per a census carried out by the Urban Development Unit, as a public-sector entity. The ex-CJP had taken a suo motu notice of the death of a woman, caused by an expired injection, administered by a quack running a centre in Kahna, an adjoining area of the provincial metropolis.
The proceedings gave a huge impetus to the campaign when the apex court was given a briefing with regard to the hurdles and problems faced while carrying out raids on quacks, police support and lower courts’ orders, as the ex-CJP restrained other courts from issuing orders against the PHC. The district administrations and police were also directed to extend full support to the commission.
Definition of quack
As per the PHC Act 2010, a quack is a person who pretends to be a healthcare service provider without either being registered with the defunct PMDC (now Pakistan Medical Commission), the National Council for Tibb, the National Council for Homeopathy and the Pakistan Nursing Council. Nevertheless, around 25 per cent of the quacks in cities, especially in the semi-urban areas, are still running their businesses, primarily under the patronage of qualified physicians and authorities concerned.
Reportedly, the quacks are paying between Rs30,000 to 180,000 every month to doctors for sharing their registrations or acting as referral centres for authorized clinics. Also, the physicians support quacks during the hearing of their cases, both in the PHC and other courts.
“In quite a few cases, the quacks have hired young doctors just to sit at their clinics, and whenever any raiding team reaches the premises, they place the ‘authentic’ doctors at the forefront to avoid getting arrested”, an official of the PHC seeking anonymity told Bol News.
The health professionals and managers attribute different reasons to the uncontrollable quackery business and partial success of the anti-quackery campaigns.
An office-bearer of the Pakistan Medical Association, requesting anonymity, has said that the monster has become a Frankenstein now. “The repeated campaigns have made the quacks hide in the backyards and narrow lanes of major arteries, including taking cover of professionals, and even going nameless and placeless”.
He said that until all the departments concerned work in unison and make all-inclusive and sustained efforts, the menace would continue to harm the health and lives of the people. “Secondly, harsh punishments should be given to fake medicine practitioners, and the authentic professionals, who are caught supporting the quacks for monetary gains should be sent to jail as well, deregistered from professional associations and banned from working for at least five years”, he said.
An office-bearer of the Academy of Family Physicians of Pakistan admitted that qualified doctors and professionals were also supporting quacks by giving them their registration numbers, protecting them when caught, and even holding pressers and protests using one pretext or the other when the PHC and health authorities take action.
Pathologists and radiologists are also doing the same when laboratories and radiological centres are shuttered, he told this writer requesting anonymity.
He urged the PMC and the authorities concerned to take stern actions against all those who are caught red-handed giving their names and registrations to the fake physicians.
