Action to be taken against unregistered medical facilities and practitioners

The Sindh Healthcare Commission (SHCC) has asked all the health institutions and medical practitioners in the province to immediately register themselves under the Sindh Healthcare Commission Act 2013.

The commission has warned the health institutions and medical professionals that in case of non-registration, action will be taken against them in accordance with the rules and regulations mentioned in the 2013 law.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Sindh Healthcare Commission Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Minhaj A Qidwai said the commission had started the process of registration for authentically trained medical practitioners and health institutions in the province. There is no fee for the registration, he added.

According to the SHCC CEO, the Section 14(1) of the Sindh Healthcare Commission Act makes it mandatory for the healthcare establishments, which include hospital diagnostic centres, medical clinics, nursing homes, maternity homes, dental clinics, homoeopathic clinics, Tibb clinics, acupuncture, physiotherapy clinics, pharmacies or any other systems of the treatment, to have a licence issued under the law which would specify the terms of their operations.

Dr Qidwai said a mobile app had been designed to help in distinguishing between an authentically qualified medical practitioner and a quack. The SHCC CEO appealed to the people to help the commission in its cause of proscribing the quacks. He asked the people not to risk their lives by visiting quacks for medical check-ups.

The email address of the commission, www.shcc.org.pk, and contact numbers, 021-38656000 and 0800-07422, were also given in the statement for general public who wanted to seek further information.

Several non-qualified and fake doctors, Hakeems and other health professionals have been operating in the province who put lives of people in danger by prescribing and distributing harmful, fake and substandard drugs to the patients. Various bodies under the health department have been taking action against such quacks.

Officials of the Drug Control Administration Sindh, in separate incidents on Wednesday, sealed an illegal pharmaceutical unit and confiscated lethal compounds from an unqualified Hakeem who was dispensing steroidal drugs to patients under the guise of herbal medicines, M. Waqar Bhatti adds.

“Today we sealed an illegal pharmaceutical unit where an unqualified person was preparing cough syrups at his residence in Orangi Town No 11 ½ and selling them to small clinics, drug stores and people in Katchi Abadis,” Chief Drug Inspector Sindh Syed Adnan Rizvi told The News.

According to Rizvi, Ali Habib, whose sole qualification was being a son of a Hakeem, used to purchase compound packs of different pharmaceutical companies and after diluting them with tap water, filled them in small bottles, labelled them as medicines and cough syrups, and sold them to drug stores, clinics and common people.

The Chief Drug Inspector said one of their officials approached Habib posing as a layman and asked him to provide 5,000 bottles of cough syrups; however, he said he could only produce 1,000 bottles in a single day.

“Today when the accused brought us 1,000 bottles, we took him to his pharmaceutical unit where he used to fill a large water cooler from the compound packs, dilute them with water, fill them in smaller bottles, label them and distribute them among people,” Rizvi said.

The Drug Control Administration also confiscated all the equipment from the so-called drug manufacturing unit and sent the case to the Quality Control Board for approval so that a criminal case could be registered against the suspect.

In another raid in Nazimabad No 4, officials of the provincial drug control body raided the workplace of a quack and unqualified Hakeem, Abdus Subhan Qureshi, who was selling steroidal drugs to patients under the guise of herbal medicines.

“This person, who claimed to be a Hakeem, was treating impotence and arthritis with the help of compounds which contained steroids, especially cortisone, which are extremely harmful to human health,” Rizvi said, adding that a large number of compounds, which were reportedly carrying lethal amounts of steroids, were confiscated from him.

A large number of people approach Hakeems for herbal medicines, believing that the herbal and traditional medicines have no side effects but unfortunately, most of these so-called herbal drugs contain steroids and cortisone, which are extremely harmful for kidneys and bones and can result in failure of multiple organs, if not taken under the supervision of qualified physicians and experts.

“We have sent several of the so-called herbal medicines and containers carrying steroids for analysis to the Drug Testing Laboratory and after its report, this case would also be sent to the Quality Control Board for registration of FIR against the quack who was playing with the lives of people,” Rizvi said.

To a query, he said the provincial drug administration had enhanced activities against quacks, illegal drug manufacturers, illegal drug stores and fraudsters playing with the lives of people.

“At the same time, we are also taking action against corrupt officials in our own department and establishment as life of people is very important and nobody could be allowed on matters of life and death,” he added.

The Sindh health department has already initiated departmental action against one of its drug inspectors who was allegedly involved in blackmailing, corruption and misuse of authority.