PHC intensifies drive against quack clinics

157 outlets sealed during raids in 25 cities across province

LAHORE:

In its continuous anti-quackery campaign, the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has conducted raids on 1,340 treatment centres in 25 cities and sealed 157 quackery outlets.

According to PHC officials, the raids were carried out on almost all types of healthcare establishments (HCEs) including hospitals, laboratories and aesthetic centres during the past two weeks.

Moreover, 703 centres had been put under surveillance to check any attempt by suspects to restart quackery since qualified persons were reportedly running these centres at the time of raids.

Read PHC seals 4 hospitals, 92 quack centres

In Lahore, a maximum number of 15 fake treatment centres were closed down which include Iqbal Medical Centre, Sindhu Clinic, Imtiaz Clinic, Beauty Perfections, Sheikh Clinic, Muhammad Iqbal Medical and General Store, Hanif Clinic, Chaudhry Tariq Dental Surgery, Shafique Clinic, Naseer Dental Care Centre, Zahra Clinic and Maternity Centre, Tanveer Clinic, Alamgir Homoeopathic Clinic, Shaikh Clinic and Masood Pharmacy.

The number of shuttered centres in other cities included 14 each in Sheikhupura and Hafizabad, 11 each in Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Multan, seven each in Nankana Sahib and Dera Ghazi Khan, six each in Attock and Narowal, five in Khanewal, four each in Bhakkar, Toba Tek Singh, Lodhran, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar, three each in Faisalabad, Kasur and Sialkot, two each in Mianwali, Okara and Chakwal and one in Gujrat.

These comprised a large number of clinical and diagnostic laboratories, which were neither registered with the PHC nor employed qualified persons. The rest, among the sealed centres, were quacks posing as general physicians, maternity homes, hakeems, homoeopathic doctors, opticians, dentists and bone setters.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2021.