The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Taraba State on Friday said it has established a special committee to check and regulate the activities quacks in the medical profession.
Chairman of the Association, Dr. Bako Ali, made the announcement in Jalingo during a media briefing to mark the NMA week for the year.
This move came shortly after the small intestine of a 13-year-old boy, Adebola Akin-Bright, was discovered missing after a series of surgery in some hospitals in Lagos; while a 45-year-old woman named Mrs. Kehinde Kamal also had her right kidney removed during a surgery unrelated to the organ in a hospital in Jos, Plateau State.
Ali said that despite the shortage of doctors, the association in Taraba frowns at quackery and the rate of proliferation of clinics without recourse to applicable standards.
According to him, such clinics often do more harm than good to society; stressing that the NMA Taraba will not compromise on standards, even though there is a shortage of physicians.
While he underlined the importance of regulating all practices related to human healt, he described the monitoring by the Committee on Monitoring and Anti-quackery unit of the NMA as a step towards curbing the menace.
Dr. Ali called on healthcare professionals to make use of the educational institutions in the state, such as the Federal University Wukari Teaching Hospital, the Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, the Specialist Hospital Jalingo, and the Orthopaedic Hospital, to keep their knowledge up-to-date.
He also urged the government and healthcare providers to tackle the challenges in the sector, enhance the welfare of healthcare workers, and provide appropriate infrastructure to facilitate their work and reduce burnout.
Also, he urged parents and guardians to present their daughters aged 9 to 14 for vaccination against the Human Papilloma Virus to prevent cervical cancer in women.
