Bitter pill for quacks: After long lull, Mira Bhayandar civic body looks out for fake doctors in twin-city

After a long lull, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has finally woken up from its deep slumber to act against quacks (bogus doctors) operating in the twin-city. Faced with several complaints about unqualified doctors prescribing treatment and practising medicine, the Bogus Doctor Detection and Review Committee headed by the municipal commissioner is back in action mode after nearly a year.

Latest action was taken in Feb last year

The latest action taken by the committee was in February 2022, when it filed an offence against a Kashimira-based electropath who was allegedly practicing allopathy at his clinic in an illegal manner. The action had followed after the state Lokayukta in a suo-motu action took note of an astronomical rise in the number of bogus doctors who practise without proper degree and directed commissioners of all municipal corporations and CEOs of zilla parishads to find out names of such doctors who practise within their jurisdiction in November-2021. Since then the committee has remained in a dormant mode.

Committee to swing in action now

“Apart from directions to our field staff to inform us if they find some dubious doctor, complaints or doubts raised in context to any suspicious medical establishment will be addressed by the committee. Also, those clinics administering- intravenous (IV) fluids (saline drips) to patients are on radar.” said a medical officer.

Sprawling slum clusters den for quacks

There are a total of 1229 medical establishments including- 223 hospitals, 878 clinics/ dispensaries, 58 pathology labs and 70 diagnostic centres registered with MBMC’s health department. However, considering the presence of illegal ones, the actual figure could be much higher, sources said. Most of the quacks operate from sprawling slum clusters in the twin-city. Legitimate documents including a medical degree, authorisation issued by the Maharashtra Medical Council, a license issued by the MBMC's health department and a bio-medical waste handling certificate.