PESHAWAR: Quacks are quacking as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission has launched a crackdown on illegal and substandard health facilities as well as uncertified and unqualified medical staff in Peshawar and other districts of the province.

A robust health regulatory body established by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in the province under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission Act 2015 has taken action against substandard health care setups in Peshawar since the end of last month.

The commission had called for all public and private health care setups, diagnostic facilities and medical professionals as well as technicians to register with it by Jan 15. Once the deadline was over, the commission started a crackdown on illegal and substandard setups in Peshawar as well as DI Khan, Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur. It has continued the raids and some shocking discoveries have been made by the commission.

Dr Khalid Masood, director licencing and registrations who is spearheading this crackdown, said that some shocking violations were observed during the raids on private medical clinics in Peshawar.

“We found the entire blood bank full of expired blood bags. There were expired reagents used for different medical tests. At one of the clinics a teacher (quack) was working as medical professional. We found unqualified staff handling patients at clinics,” said Dr Masood while giving details of the action taken since he took charge two months ago.

Commission official says over 80 labs and clinics sealed in last two months

The commission has raided and sealed over 80 laboratories and clinics while 72 were issued notices in Peshawar, Hazara and Dera Ismail Khan divisions.

“Four FIRs were also registered against those who obstructed the raid and quarreled with our staff when we were sealing their medical setup,” said Dr Masood, adding it was one of extreme actions taken so far by the commission.

The commission could impose fine up to Rs500,000 for violations. “So far we have imposed Rs70,000 as the highest fine,” he said.

The lawyer of the commission would pursue the cases and a person doing illegal medical practice or gross violation like causing death of a patient could be imprisoned for up to six months under the law.

“We (the commission) are here to register and facilitate those providing quality health care in the public and private sector, but would take action against those involved in illegal and substandard health care activities,” he said.

Dr Masood said that he personally looked into complaints filed by citizens on the official website of the commission or referred by any of the seven zonal offices in the provinces where complaint cells had been established too.

“We have made more than 1,200 registrations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over last two months. We are looking into more registrations to facilitate those providing quality health care services,” he said.

Earlier, there was a health regulatory authority in the province which had proven to be a useless body since it was unable to take effective action against illegal medical practices and setups. It had registered only 2,700 medical setups since 2003.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2017