Quacks kill more Nigerians than armed robbers – Medical Expert
Quacks kill more Nigerians than armed robbers – Medical Expert
//Godwin Ekosin, Kaduna//
Medical Director, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Kaduna, Dr. Taiwo Sheikh, over the weekend raised an alarm that quacks in the medical profession are killing more people than armed robbers.
Dr. Taiwo, who stated this in Kaduna during the 2016 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference of Kaduna State Chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), stressed that armed robbers will only demand money or one’s life, but quacks will demand both from unsuspecting patients.
“I think it’s very important to talk about it today, how we have accessed quality laboratory services. We have just heard what the Chairman of NMA said about quackery in the laboratory services. And we heard the way he described it. The quacks will ask for your money and your life, which is worst than the armed robber who will ask for money or your life. So this is the situation,” he noted.
When asked what is NMA doing to nip the menace in the bud, he said “there are so many things that are going on today that is not allowing us to pay attention to the quality of laboratory services that is being delivered. And when you talk about it, people will say it is rivalry between health workers. They have allowed this to overshadow what is threatening the lives of Nigerians.
“A lot of contradictions in the physicians oath because doctors don’t respect their teachers any more. We don’t see our teachers as anything any more,” the doctor decried.
The MD however called for outright change from the practitioners to put the name of the profession in the right place and also give Nigerians effective healthcare delivery.
Also in an address, a Professor of Medical Microbiology with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Dr. Adebola Olayinka emphasized the need for quality laboratory services.
“low laboratory services has implications. It consequences is that it leads to wrong diagnosis and people die,” she stated.
Earlier, the State chairman of NMA, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim said quackery in the laboratory service delivery is top among problems begging for immediate attention in the health sector in Kaduna State.
He said it has received series of complains bordering on medical malpractice in the delivery of laboratory services, especially relating to violation of the ethics and values of clinical practice or to quackery, appealling to the government to end the multiple taxation on private health facilities in the state which he said lowers health of the ordinary man.