The fight to safeguard the life of Nigerians is one of the cardinal responsibilities of many of the nation’s health regulatory agencies.

 

It is therefore not strange that these agencies are seriously engaging imposters, especially quacks, to ensure that there is sanity in the sector. Evidence of these contributions abound, the Registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Dr. Abdulmuminin Ibrahim, has said.

 

According to him, the council is currently investigating and prosecuting over 40 cases bordering on the activities of quacks in the nation’s courts. While the regulatory body, whose responsibility is to monitor the activities of medical practitioners has mapped out measures to fish out the “little foxes that are spoiling the vine”, quacks, MDCN says, have also devised methods of evading the traps.

 

According to the Head of Inspectorate Department of the council, Dr. Henry Okwuokenye, fake doctors now steal certificates and licences of practising medical doctors to set up their own clinics.

 

Okwuokenye explains that the council is at present investigating a case of a fake doctor, who connived with armed robbers to steal the certificates and practising licence of a doctor in Oyo State.

 

According to him, the fake doctor used the stolen documents to start a functional clinic in Abuja.

 

Okwuokenye declares, “The fake doctor went with thieves to bungle the house of a male doctor overnight. They took his licence and other relevant certificates and ran away from Oyo to set up a private clinic in Abuja. We apprehended him while he was trying to renew the licence with us.

 

“It was when we called the original owner of the medical licence to verify that he complained that he had been robbed some months back. Fake doctors are crafty; they can go to any length to get a medical licence so doctors must be on guard. We have over 32 cases of forgery, impersonation and quackery that the council is currently investigating all over the country.”

 

 

Apart from stealing medical licences, Okwounenye, who adds that fake doctors often impersonate and forge medical certificates to deceive their employers, warns practising doctors or owners of private hospitals to endeavour to authenticate the certificates of their employees before engaging their services.

 

He also cites the case of one Angela Nwosu, who had sought employment at a private hospital in Apo, Abuja, with forged medical certificates.

 

The council, MDCN boss further notes, that the council apprehended Nwosu when her employer came to verify the result at the council.

 

Okwuokenye says, “We had been looking for Nwosu since 2013 when she came to get her license to practice at the Ministry of Health in Oyo State.

 

“She ran away from Ibadan because she knew we were looking for her but her case resurfaced when she used the forged documents to apply for another job in Abuja.

 

“Her employer wanted to know her status and sent her name and that of other doctors in his hospital to us to verify. We were able to confirm others, but hers did not pull through.”

 

He also reveals that auxiliary nurses, attendants, other workers, who have no medical experiences but have worked in hospitals and medical centres forge their employers’ licences to open shady clinics or seek employment where they are not known.

 

Meanwhile, the MDCN has warned doctors and owners of private hospitals to verify regularly the qualifications of their workers before offering them jobs.

 

The appeal, the council said, had become necessary, as it would henceforth hold such employers liable for such cases.

 

The council similarly questioned the recent dissolution of the board of medical councils in the country by President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

The President, Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Kayode Obembe, raised the alarm, saying the decision portends grave danger for the country considering the incidence of quackery and bad practices in the system.

 

According to him, whenever there is no council, all cases before the MDCN’s investigating panels and tribunal are suspended and new cases cannot be attended to.

 

Obembe also frowned on the inability of the council to take a concrete decision regarding the prosecution and arrests of fake doctors, noting that the action could compromise their prosecution and delay justice for affected persons.

 

He stated, “The unfortunate and frequent dissolution of the council by various new governments has given opportunities for persons outside the medical and dental professions to take certain critical decisions exclusively reserved for members of the professions, and which they have no competence whatsoever to take.”

 

“The consequences have been devastating as some practitioners engaged in unethical conduct without fear of sanction. The dissolution of the council is akin to the closure of courts for the trial of erring practitioners.”

 

Obembe, however, called on President Buhari to exempt MDCN from the directive as it did the Governing Councils of universities and the Council for Legal Education.

 

BY: BUKOLA ADEBAYO

THE PUNCH