Quackery on the rise in the city’s suburbs

KARACHI: A score of quacks, non-technical paramedics, and unskilled midwives are openly running private hospitals, medical or dental clinics, and maternity homes across Karachi, especially in the suburban areas of the city due to the poor monitoring system of the Sindh Healthcare Commission (SHCC) and Sindh Health Department.

An official of the Sindh Health Department told that the SHCC has failed to devise a comprehensive strategy to control the illegal practice of quacks operating in Karachi as the city's old suburban areas have become a hub for unlawful dental and medical clinics and maternity homes.

He informed that hundreds of illegal hospitals, dental clinics, and maternity homes are operating across the city without check and balance. These dental and medical clinics and maternity homes are being run by non-qualified doctors, technicians, and midwives. He said non-qualified people are not only spreading disease but also further increasing medical complications among the patients who visit them due to the lack of awareness while the Health Service Department of Karachi and the SHCC’s concerned authorities have shut their eyes on this matter.

He said that the city’s suburban areas including New Karachi, Surjani Town, North Nazimbad, Bilal Colony, Ittehad Town,  Baldia Town, Orangi Town, Korangi Town, and Sohrab  Goth, while old city areas of Karachi like Saddar, Lee Market, Lyari, Mauripur, Quaidabad, Landhi, Bin Qasim, Manghopir and Malir, have become a hub for illegal dental and medical clinics and maternity homes. He said non-qualified doctors, technicians, and midwives have been using the names of city known physicians and surgeons to lure innocent citizens.

The official said that the SHCC had launched drives against such elements in the past on various occasions, but unfortunately, the campaigns could not produce the desired results due to political pressure, poor planning, and lack of coordination between the SHCC and the Sindh Health Department.

He said private hospitals, dental clinics, medical clinics, and maternity homes had become significant sources of various lethal diseases, including hepatitis B, C, and HIV/ADIS. Quack practitioners are looting uneducated people.

Media Coordinator to the Health Minister, Meeran Yousuf, was not available to make any comments.

-MN Report