Association of Nigeria Private Medical Practitioners( ANPMP) In Ogun Calls On FG Intervention Against Quackery Practice.
….Tells Ministry of Health to create a task force to Inspect, Monitor and Enforce laws of strict adherence to areas of specialisation .
By Onome Naomi
ANPMP Association of Nigeria Private Medical Practitioners has come out to the public to voice out their concerns about the looming hazard that is preventing health care delivery in the state. The group noted that the issue of quack doctors in the society is of paramount concern and should be addressed immediately to end its increasing momentum.
ANPMP, The private practitioners excluded self from the quackery practise, analyses the various ways the issue of quack professionals have destroyed the medical system. They described the summounting issue as life threatening to the detriment of individuals if not curtailed now.
Dr Olukayode Oyelade, Chairman ANPMP Ogun state noted that a private clinic is a health facility opened by a registered nurse while a hospital is a health facility established by a doctor and as such area of specialisation matters to define practising boundaries.Being a private doctor is about partnering with the govt to render quality health care services to the people.
ANPMP as a body implores the Ministry of health to take actions against individuals who are quacks in the profession, fish them out and handle accordingly. The base of quacking is corruption, it is the duty of the ministry to enforce laws to end quackery.
It was said that the medical Practitioners are divided into two categories, the private doctors and government doctors while MPCN remains the regulatory body for overseeing all licenced doctors, both private and government practitioners. There is another group of doctors called the semi private doctors, these doctors are working for their own salaries under the private setting, more of doctors that are hired by private hospitals and clinics. Most of the quack practitioners do not hold a stand in these associations or categories and so shouldn’t go beyond their limits by specialising on a borrowed field they are not qualified for.
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There are certain challenges doctors faces but it differs depending on which category of practice you belong to.
For private practitioners, the running cost of keeping a serene environment is costly and tasking unlike government medical practitioners who already have things in place without spending for it, the chairman quipped.
ANPMP executives who spoke extensively on issue of quackery as an obstruction to appropriate healthcare services further stated the following:
“We want the govt to take up their responsibility, their exclusive duty to make sure that Clinics, Maternity homes, hospitals should operate on their level not delve into medical practises that isn’t their speciality as that will be tantamount to quackery.
What we have in OGUN STATE is absolute chaos, mediocrity with Charlatans/ Quacks boasting openly that they’re untouchable, it must be noted that Quackery thrives on Corruption, it will never happen where enforcers have been able to rise above corrupt tendencies.
Everyone should obey the law, the Government should enforce the law for the sake of OGUN State people who are dying daily of preventable causes.
Nigeria has one of the highest Maternal Mortality in the world and Quackery is the major contributor to this state
How do we unravel these supposed medical practitioners? The use of a medical task force is essential at this time, the govt should employ the use of task force that will carry out a proper sanitizing to reduce the level of quackery in the system.
The ministry of health further has a big role to play, unfortunately this role has been monopolized to the brim thereby reducing the activities of a check mate to irregular activities going on in the medical sector
The ministry should call a stakeholders meeting to address the looming crisis amongst private medical practitioners and assailants who have taken over the medicals
The task force should help to Inspect, Monitor and Enforce laws guiding the medical sector.
The state govt of Ogun state should help reform medical practitioners by giving the mantle of a checkmate to the activities of quackery to a uniformed group( task force) who will in turn checkmate the activities of those practising non areas of specialisation
We as a body has noted the incompetence of the ministry of health in tackling the issues of quackery, the public should know this.
The public are the victims of quack doctors and so it is important to note that the ministry of health needs to act fast in creating a solution to this impending menace by bringing in a unified group(taskforce) an incorruptible set of individuals to help checkmate the increasing activities of quackery in the medical sector.”
