Mushroom growth of quacks’ clinics play havoc with patients’ lives

By Our Staff Reporter

Karachi: Hundreds of quacks have set up their clinics and maternity homes in every nook and cranny of the city and yet they go unnoticed and unpunished.

Though the clinics and maternity homes being runs by quacks are considered as a source of spreading diseases as well as of complicating cases of the patients visiting them, concerned officials of health departments of both the Sindh government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) seemed least interested in wiping out the menace of quackery from the metropolis.

The quacks are not only running their medical/dental clinics and the so-called maternity homes in slums and suburban localities of the metropolis, but even in the hub of the city, especially in the Old City area.

The localities where one can witness quacks’ clinics and maternity homes include Saddar, Lea Market, Lyari, Mauripur, Quaidabad, Landhi, Malir, New Karachi, Manghopir, Surjani Town, North Nazimbad, Orangi Town, Korangi Town, Baldia Town and Sohrab Goth.

The unqualified doctors and midwives, associated with quacks’ clinics and maternity homes, with a view to attracting people reportedly hoodwink the people by unlawfully using the names of the city’s prominent doctors.

Though the KMC’s health department during its previous anti-quacks campaigns had taken action against quacks, they somehow manage to reappear after an interval to loot poor patients merely owing to lack of planning and coordination between different civic agencies.

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) secretary general Dr Mirza Ali Azhar while talking to the Medical News regretted that though a law against quackery existed in Sindh, it was not being implemented in letter and spirit.

He disclosed that of about 0.7 million quacks, who are running their dental and medical clinics across Pakistan, 0.2million are operating clinics in Sindh.

Deploring that over 60,000 quacks are playing havoc with the citizens’ lives, he said there is an urgent need to launch a major crackdown on quacks, besides ensuring they did not reappear after some time.