UP: Health dept to crack whip on quacks; drive to weed them out to begin soon

AGRA: After receiving numerous complaints against quacks, the health department along with district administration and police is going to launch a campaign against them. Raids will be conducted in different parts of the districts. Clinics and nursing homes found operating without permission of the health department will be sealed. According to the chief medical officer (CMO), FIRs will be registered against the quacks.

According to the sources, a large number of unauthorized clinics are being operating across the district. In rural areas, quacks are even operating hospitals. Some of these even have an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and claim to provide 24-hour emergency service.

Raids were conducted earlier but no FIRs were filed against the quacks. As a result, Dr Ajay Kapoor, who was the nodal officer, was replaced by Dr RK Agnihotri.

Mukesh Kumar Vats, chief medical officer, said, “A campaign against quacks and non-permitted clinics, nursing homes and hospitals will be initiated soon. A joint team of the health department, district administration and police will conduct raids on different places on the basis of the complaints received and available leads. The illegal centres will be sealed and an FIR will be registered against the quacks. In case, a quack is caught operating a patient, he or she be immediately arrested.”

So far this year, the health department has identified more than 30 illegal clinics, hospitals and pathology labs. They were sealed but the officials failed to register an FIR against them.

Sources said some of the illegal centres sealed earlier have reopened. Over the past six months, at least three people have died after being treated by quacks.