The scourge of fake medical practitioners

The menace of fake doctors is a cause for serious concern. A national daily has recently reported that the number of doctors who are simply faking as so and practising with impunity, specially in the country's rural areas, has increased alarmingly. It is possible to deceive little educated or uneducated people. The so-called bogus doctors in question have their prescription pads where they declare their locally obtained degrees as well as foreign ones. But such doctors, for obvious reasons, are not registered with the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council ( BMDC) -- the country's lone organisation that registers doctors, after being satisfied with their qualification, and issues licenses for them to practice. Bogus doctors carry on in their very highly health-hazarding activities simply from not being detected and challenged by the gullible public. According to the report, diagnostic centres, private clinics and other forms of medical establishments are mushrooming in the country. But a large number out of them have no authorization from the appropriate authorities to be in business. The more alarming is, according to the report, 90 per cent of the doctors in many of them are holders of fake degrees or have no degrees at all. Thus, the very great dangers to which unknowing people are exposed to, should be clear to all concerned. It has been observed that these bogus doctors also operate on patients admitted to such medical centres. But from not being trained or qualified to operate, they sometimes do more harm than good. They may cut away tissues unnecessarily and cause greater damage. When the patients, after such operations, do not recover, they are ultimately persuaded to go to properly approved medical institutions. At this end, the consequences of improperly carried-out operations by fake doctors are detected. Then the patients have to submit to surgery again that only add to their pains and costs. The sufferers from such operations are in most cases simple people who dare not to complain or pursue legally or otherwise the physical harms done to them by ones impersonating as doctors. Thus, the imposters are left free to carry on in their crimes without feeling any pressure whatsoever or without being called to account for their behaviour and face the due penalties. The fake doctors are also reported to have a hand-in-glove type of relationship with the so-called diagnostic centres of dubious value where they send their patients. The patients are directed to absolutely get their tests from these places and not from others. Out of pressure, the hapless patients submit to such orders only to be cheated from poor or completely worthless tests. But the bogus doctors having underhand relationship with these diagnostic centres in name only get regular 'commissions' from the latter for their unethical service. The outcome of such deceptions in the area of medical care is multiplied suffering of the patients in nearly all such cases. The patients in the greatest number in all these cases are poor and unable to distinguish between the fraud from the genuine ones in the medical field. They approach the fraudulent institutions and doctors with an open mind, not realizing that they are offering themselves to the devil. Later on, they consider themselves as not strong enough or resourceful to seek redress for their right grievances. Generally, they have no idea of the way to get any redress or how to go about in exposing the practitioners of fraud. In this context, the BMDC does need to assert itself or make its presence felt strongly to stop such practices. But the same is easier said than done. BMDC does at present hardly run any vigilance activities in support of its mission activities. It is constrained largely by its not having the capabilities to mount such vigilance. This, in turn, stems from its probable lack of resources. However, there is also an element of truth in criticism being made against BMDC for its own self-created slag in these matters. Therefore, the authorities concerned must play their part in enabling BMDC to be more pre-active in this matter and, thus, be more vigilant.