Quacks are having a field day in private hospitals and health clinics in some parts of Kerala again, pushing a section of doctors to reactivate their special cell to zero in on them.
According to functionaries of the General Practitioners Association (GPA), a forum of MBBS doctors, these unauthorised physicians are mainly of three groups. P.C. Varun, executive committee member, GPA Kerala, says that there are quite a few foreign medical graduates from the State who have come back from their place of studies during the pandemic period. There are some others studying in medical universities in Ukraine, who were affected by the ongoing war with Russia.
“Some of these people have managed to join certain private hospitals and health facilities as ‘observers’. They have not gone back to resume their studies. Of late, these people are found to have been working as junior doctors in hospitals without any medical degrees,” he claims.
There are a few who may have completed their studies in foreign medical universities, but are awaiting their certificates as it may take around one to two years to get them. Though they can’t be called quacks as they are qualified to practise medicine, such people are not registered with the Kerala State Medical Councils (KSMC). Another group of unqualified medical practitioners are some Pharm D graduates, who manage to get appointed as clinical assistants in hospitals. Some of them too are reportedly working as junior doctors, Dr. Varun alleges. The functionaries of GPA also claim that some practitioners of Ayurveda and Unani are also prescribing modern medicines without authorisation.
It is learnt that the quacks are working in groups, especially in health clinics and private hospitals in South Kerala districts. They charge less as consultation fees and their salaries are comparatively meagre too. “When they get a hint that the people around them have realised their true colours, such people flee the spot quickly and resume their job in some other institution,” Dr. Varun says.
The GPA members said that it is easy to find out if a medical practitioner is a quack or an authorised medical practitioner. “These people give a random figure as their registration number. Anyone can search on the KSMC website and find out if the registration number is correct. Also, going by their age, now it is possible to determine the year of completion of their course and registration as well. In the case of foreign medical graduates, we can contact their classmates or contemporaries to figure out if they have cleared the courses,” a GPA functionary says.
The contact number of the GPA quack cell is 7736593003. The GPA is planning to register complaints with the Health department and the police based on the complaints they receive.
