Kano Clamps on 130 hospitals, pharmacies run by quacks

A committee in Tudun Wada Local Government Area in Kano State, has revealed that it has discovered 130 hospitals and pharmacies run by quack doctors, some of which are Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination holders.

The committee set up by the Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Tijjani Matata, also said it discovered during its investigation that one of the fake doctors is an electrical engineer who owned an eight-bed hospital that claimed to treat different illnesses.

The Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Abubakar Karafe also told newsmen that one of the fake doctors infused HIV-positive blood in a woman that came to be treated for malaria.

Karafe said, “It is disheartening that we even found an electrical engineer operating a private hospital and attending to patients; prescribing drugs, administering drips, blood and even attending to pregnant women. One of them even added HIV-positive blood to one woman.

“We even found one who is a traditional medicine vendor, but he admitted cholera patients. We had to evacuate them to the hospital for proper treatment. Most of them don’t even have basic knowledge about health.

“One of them said he was a nurse, and later we discovered he only has a secondary school leaving certificate.”

Karafe further revealed that the investigation followed a series of complaints received from residents over the proliferation of private hospitals and pharmacies in their various villages.

(Punch)