Operation to round up quacks

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

A Special Information Centre will be established at the Mirihana Crime Investigation Division to reveal the identity of quacks masquerading as medical doctors, Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Media Spokesman Dr.Naveen de Zoysa said.

Addressing the media at the GMOA auditorium yesterday, Dr de Zoysa said all qualified doctors should be registered with the Sri Lanka Medical Council, Ayurveda Council and Homeopathy Council.

“Those who haven’t registered with any of these councils will be deemed quacks. Health Ministry statistics reveal that there are around 40,000 quacks in Sri Lanka posing a grave danger to the public.

As they have no qualifications, knowledge or experience in the medical field, these quacks prescribe drugs to patients causing severe harm and sometimes death.

It will badly affect the health indicators of the country as well as the development of the country,” the spokesman said.

The government plans to develop Sri Lanka as a health service hub in Asia and also promote health tourism.

Hence, high health indicators are essential to make these efforts successful, he said.

“Although the GMOA and the Police jointly launched a procedure to nab quacks and impose a fine of Rs 5,000, these quacks pay the Rs 5,000 fine and continue with the job. At a discussion with the Health Minister, the latter agreed to draft legislation to impose a five year prison term on quacks, ” the media spokesman said.

He said the IGP agreed to establish an information centre to inform the public about quacks and launch a special procedure to obtain information about quacks over the phone with the support of telecommunication service providers.

Islandwide operations will also be conducted soon to arrest quacks. The first phase of the operation will start from Colombo. “The Police informed the three councils to submit the list of registered doctors to the Police. The SLMC submitted the list and soon after receiving the other two lists, the Police will commence an operation to nab quacks,” he said.