A help cell set up by the General Practitioners Association (GPA), a forum of MBBS doctors in Kerala, has received 82 complaints in around a month against unqualified or unregistered medical practitioners in various districts in the State.
Functionaries of the GPA told The Hindu on Sunday that though 20-odd complaints had been registered with the respective police stations, only one person, in Ernakulam, had been arrested so far.
The ‘quack cell’, which became functional in June last week, got the highest number of complaints from Ernakulam district (22). It is followed by Kollam (20); Alappuzha and Kannur (six each); Thrissur, Malappuram and Idukki (five each); Kozhikode and Palakkad (three each); Kasaragod (three); Wayanad (two); and Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam (one each). Some of these people have been reportedly “practising” for around a decade. Members of the cell point out that these numbers may go up, especially in districts such as Thiruvananthapuram, from where many cases have not been brought before them.
These quacks include people without an MBBS degree and those who have not completed the course; medical students who have not been trained in modern medicine under a registered medical practitioner (RMP) during their course; and those who don’t practise modern medicine under an RMP during their house surgency period. There are medical graduates who haven’t got their registration from the State Medical Councils; those who practise modern medicine between their house surgency and while awaiting their registration number; and foreign medical graduates or students without proper authorisation.
‘Police apathetic’
The GPA functionaries claim that despite their legal advisor relentlessly following up on each complaint and furnishing documentary proof to show their illegal work, the police authorities are reluctant to act on the complaints. Instead, the police personnel approach the management of the hospitals or clinics where these “quacks” are employed. The hospital managements, meanwhile, flatly refute the allegations and claim that they were just “observers” and not medical practitioners. Observers are those foreign medical graduates without registration who have been allowed to assist RMPs in health-care institutions, but they cannot treat patients.
The GPA has now approached the Indian Medical Association and the Kerala Private Hospital Association for help and has lodged complaints with the Chief Minister and the Health Minister. The association is also planning to file a writ petition in the Kerala High Court.
