Checking Illegal Medical Practice

The recent newspaper report on the arrest of a
fake doctor who has practiced with his friend’s certification for nine years, once brings to the fore the growing cases of quackery in the medical profession and the need to curb it.
According to the report, Mr. Martins Ugwu, a senior official of the Federal Ministry of Health, who had been practicing as a medical doctor for over nine years, was last week apprehended by the police upon discovery that he stole the license from his friend.
Ugwu, a senior medical officer II on Grade level 13, who was due to be promoted to an Assistant Director with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health, allegedly impersonated his friend, Dr. George Daniel who was on course in another state.
It took the concerted effort of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to unmask the impostor.
Stories like this are no longer strange in Nigeria.  Almost everyday we hear stories of how fake doctors, fake nurses, fake laboratory technicians, fake pharmacy operators send people to their untimely graves.
Just last year, a friend of mine almost lost her son in the hands of a fake Indian doctor who owns a clinic at Trans Amadi. The woman who newly relocated to Port Harcourt was directed to take her sick son to a nearby clinic. On getting there the Indian doctor examined the boy and diagnosed malaria. Immediately, he commenced treatment. Two days into the treatment, the boy’s condition instead of getting better, worsened. He was taken back to the clinic. After another round of examination, the doctor said he had typhoid, malaria, fever and started bombarding the poor boy with drugs.
Incidentally, despite all this, the boy’s condition kept deteriorating. He started emaciating. He became so pale with his eyes turning green. Infact, the boy was dying yet the Indian  kept assuring that he would be alright.
Fortunately, after about two weeks of unfruitful treatment, a neighbour recommended  another clinic  where proper laboratory tests were carried out and  accurate  diagnoses made. After ten  days of admission in the hospital, he was discharged, hale and hearty
There are many of these fake doctors all over the country. They were  neither licensed  nor registered  as medical doctors, yet they are practicing. Even among the licensed  ones, there are many poorly trained ones who have become  a menace to the society.
Let us not even mention the growing  number of fertility  centres all over the country. The doctors  there extort  money from unsuspecting, ignorant couples all in a bid to help them have babies. And to prove that they are the best,  to justify the huge sums of  money collected from the patients they do all kinds of unspeakable, unethical things.
Some people have alleged that some of these  doctors even go to the extent of using their sperm to fertilise  the women’s egg without  the knowledge of the couples.
In all these, the question  that comes to mind what are the regulatory  bodies doing to check these  anomalies? How can the medical practice in Nigeria be an all-comers affair?
Knowing how important the medical profession is, how the lives of millions of Nigerians are affected  by the  activities of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other members of the medical professional, one would have expected that adequate measures be taken  by the regulatory bodies, the security agencies, the Nigeria Medical Association and other medical organisations to ensure that the best practices are obtained in our medical sector as applicable in other countries.
Indeed, this is an issue that should be given urgent attention  by the new administration both at the  states and federal levels. Government cannot afford to remain silent while Nigerians continue loosing their  lives in the hands of  fake medical practitioners.
The wind of change that is currently blowing in the country should extend to the medical profession in the  interest of poor innocent Nigerians.

Calista Ezeaku