Health dept serves notices to 200 quacks in 3 months

Bareilly: Following several complaints by villagers, the health department has served notices to nearly 200 unqualified doctors in the past three months in the district. Officials have also written to the concerned police stations to take action against the alleged quacks. They have also moved the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM) against 20 offenders.

Dr Ranjan Gautam, additional chief medical officer, said, “We have received several complaints from villagers and on our IGRS portal about quacks operating in the district. We have asked many of these unqualified doctors to submit documents and degrees in our office for verification. We have also sent a copy to various police stations asking officers to stop these quacks from practising. We will move court of the CJM under section 15 (2) and (3) of the Indian Medical Act if they fail to submit the required documents. We have already approached the court in nearly 20 such cases. We have lodged FIRs against quacks in incidents where deaths have been reported due to wrong treatment.”

According to officials, a majority of these quacks had earlier worked as paramedical staff in private nursing homes or clinics. “Nursing Homes Act has not been implemented in Uttar Pradesh yet and hence, many of these facilities hire school drop-outs as ward boys and other staff. After few years of training, these people open their own clinics in villages. We have been appealing to the Bareilly chapter of Indian Medical Council to not appoint any untrained staff. We have also asked them to inform us if they come across any former employee who has started treating people illegally,” added Dr Gautam.