NMA Takes War Against Quackery To Plateau Rural Communities

Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Plateau State, Dr Bapigaan Audu, has expressed worry over quackery in the medical profession in the country, stressing that the government at all levels should make concerted efforts to tackle the menace.

Speaking in Jos, the Plateau State capital, during the annual general meeting/ scientific conference organised by the Nigerian Medical Association, Plateau State Chapter, he said, “Quackery in medicine is a source of worry to registered medical practitioners because they play on the gullibility of members of the public.”

In his words, “ The theme of this AGM, Patient Advocacy and Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Combating the Menace of Medical Quackery, is apt and carefully chosen to raise the public’s consciousness of the damaging effects of medical quackery.”

He also called for necessary actions from the government of Plateau State and the relevant security and regulatory agencies to ramp up monitoring activities to restore sanity to the healthcare space in Plateau State.

“Searchlight must be beamed further than the urban areas into the rural areas where these quacks are having a field day largely due to the absence of standard medical facilities and the requisite, trained human resource for health to man these centres where they are available.”

He also added that NMA in Plateau State has collaborated with security agencies to rid the health space of quacks.

Meanwhile, Prof. Nuhu Dakum, who gave a keynote address titled “Patient Advocacy and Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Combating the Menace of Quackery”, said the solutions to quackery in Nigeria include, to be patient advocacy while government at all levels should endeavour to address the menace of poverty.

He also decried the lack of access to quality healthcare, stressing that quackery would have been eliminated if all the citizens had access to quality health care irrespective of their status in society.

Dakum further said that health education is very important; therefore, citizens should be properly guided on the need to go to recognised government hospitals for treatment.

According to him, regulatory agencies like MDCN, PCN, and other monitoring teams should shine their searchlights in all parts of the state to identify quack doctors and flush them out before much harm is caused.