KARACHI:
A few weeks ago, I had a minor fever that wasn’t going away and since it was late at night, I ended up at a small clinic near my house instead of waiting till the morning to see an actual doctor. The man there was not a qualified doctor, just someone who was running that setup for years and within five minutes he was already prepping an injection, telling me it would “sort everything out by tomorrow.”
I asked what was in it, and I didn’t get a straight answer, just something about vitamins and antibiotics mixed together. When I asked the price, it was more than what a qualified physician charges for an actual consultation in Khairpur. That is when it hit me: this is not even about being cheap or convenient anymore, these people are charging more and giving you medicine nobody can verify.
After further investigation, I realised that this practice seems to be taking place everywhere. Unnecessary injections and drips have become the whole business model of these quack doctors and because it looks like ‘proper treatment’ to someone who does not know better, it lets them charge whatever they want.
If the health authorities are serious about stopping quackery, they need to stop treating this as a paperwork issue and actually shut these places down, not just for a week, but for good.
Parkash Kumar
Khairpur
