MALAPPURAM: The police will soon start raiding clinics and mobile clinics in the district which run by unregistered practitioners and make arrests.
The medical authorities has started meticulous gathering of information about quacks in the district to be passed on for police action.
The district medical officer (DMO), Dr Ummar Farooq said that as part of the initial steps of the action, the names and other details of ten fraud doctors would be handed over to Malappuram district collector K Biju and the police will initiate action against them in the coming days.
On Saturday, the district general body meeting of Indian Homoeopathic Medical Association (IHMA) alleged that there are hundreds of quacks practicing in the district and the district medical authorities are turning blind eye to the demand to crackdown the illegal practice of fraud homoeopathic doctors.
The meeting alleged that the district medical officer (DMO-Modern Medicine), who is responsible to take action against the illegal practice of fraud doctors, is reluctant to act on the written complaints with all details which have been submitted by the organization members.
The DMO has informed that the district health administration have started making a list of suspected quacks in different areas across the district and will collect more names in the coming days.
“There are illegal practitioners of ayurveda and homoeopathy in the available list. We will also take action against allopathic doctors if we find them practicing illegally,” he said.
The president of the district unit of IHMA, Dr V A Nisar said that there are more than 200 fraud homoeopathic doctors practicing across the district. ”
Unlike in ayurveda, we cannot agree with the claims regarding the traditional practice in homoeopathy,” he said.
“We have learnt that there are two fraud homoeopathic doctors practicing in Kottappadi in Malappuram town. The organization has already lodged many complaints regarding them with medical authorities and police. But the illegal medical practice is still going on,” he said adding that more than hundred similar complaints are pending with the police and medial authorities across various parts of Malappuram.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/Health-dept-cracks-whip-on-quacks/articleshow/46913068.cms
If ‘quackery’ is defined as practicing a medical system in which one is not ‘qualified’, prescribing allopathic medicines by people who are ‘qualified’ only in homeopathy is also pure quackery. If so, at least 50% of 2.8 lakhs qualified homeopaths in India are practicing quackery, since they practice allopathy without any qualification in it. Out of the 60000 registered homeopaths in maharashtra, majority could be considered quacks. I would expect a response from IHMA on this point.
IHMA should also demand ‘crack down’ on ‘qualified’ homeopaths who illegally prescribe allopathic or ayurvedic medicines, which also amounts to ‘quackery’.