BY ABIODUN NEJO
Medical practitioners at the weekend described quackery in the medical profession as still a major killer in the country.
The medical experts under the aegis of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) called on the police and other security agencies to come to the rescue of Nigerians, who they said are endangered.
MMA Chairman in Ekiti State, Dr Tunji Omotayo, also called for full implementation of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for the actualization of the universal health coverage of the Federal Government.
Omotayo, who spoke in Ado Ekiti at a press conference to round off the weeklong 2018 Ekiti NMA Physicians’ Week with the theme: “Medical Quackery and Litigation, Closing the Gap in Polio
Eradication and Universal Health Coverage”, said this was necessary to stem the rising waves of child and maternal mortality in Nigeria and reduced life expectancy of the people due to disparity in access to quality healthcare deliver.
Omotayo said the menace of quackery had caused deaths of many innocent Nigerians, crippling the medical profession and as well reducing the quality of practice
in the country.
He said: “Quackery is the bane of development of any society or profession, not medical practice alone. It is a danger to the society. Patients always commit their lives in the hands of doctors and once they are not saved, then we are all endangered.
“The police must help us in this regard, because we have identified some people parading themselves as qualified medical practitioners but later found to be quacks. We reported their cases to the police but surprisingly they were let off the hook.
“We plead that the police should do more, they must partner us in this regard because it affects everybody”, he said.
The NMA also appealed to Ekiti State Government to implement the State Insurance Health Scheme (SHIS) without further delay to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses.
“The SHIS bill was signed into law under ex-Governor Ayodele Fayose, but we have to go beyond this and move to the level of implementation.
“We also frowned on the lingering crisis rocking the NHIS and we urge the Federal Government to intervene appropriately to restore peace and stability to the agency for it to deliver on its mandate.
“We congratulate the new governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on his second term, we assure him that NMA will partner his government to reposition the health sector and make it reach enviable height,” The NMA boss said.