Authorities to crack whip on quack doctors

Nadira Gunatilleke

COLOMBO: The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry and the Police Department will launch a countrywide one day raid to arrest all quack doctors.

It has been discovered that there are 40,000 quack doctors in Sri Lanka at the moment, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said.

Sources said these quack doctors pose a great danger to the public because they are strangers to the field of medicine.

Some are relations of reputed doctors and some are retired dispensers and Paramedics.

According to sources these quack doctors prescribe drugs to patients causing severe damage and sometimes death because they do not have the required knowledge, experience and qualifications. Sometimes they prescribe Aspirin for dengue patients which causes dengue hemorrhage.

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry and the public undergo numerous difficulties because of these quack doctors. The Government spends large sums of money to treat patients who are victims of these doctors, sources said.