Africa-Press – Uganda. Local authorities in Tororo are planning a crackdown on the increasing quack doctors and unlicensed clinics in the district following a misrepresentation of malaria figures.
On Tuesday, Tororo Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Nickson Owole told the district’s malaria task force meeting that the unlicensed doctors prescribe medicine and attend to patients without medicinal knowledge.
The task force observed that fake doctors and clinics have led to distorting data on the malaria situation of the district, warning that “it might lead to deaths and damage the healthcare sector.”
During the meeting, the RDC announced that he was going to summon the district security meeting to see how action can be taken against fake doctors.
He further appealed to the district health officer to find the laws that Tororo’s security can use to penalize the culprits.
The Tororo secretary for health and education, Noah Okumu, equally supported the RDC’s proposal.
“Laxity in enforcing some of the laws has made it easy for unscrupulous individuals to infiltrate the health sector to stage health outreaches and make quick money at the expense of people’s lives,” he observed on Tuesday.
He suggested creation of a ‘’doctors’ day’’ in lower health facilities where patients can easily interface with doctors because some of them can not differentiate between genuine medics and herbal doctors.
The leader’s concern was triggered by a mismatch of data on malaria presented by the district bio-statician Ali Mabuya Mugerwa.
He reported that whereas the malaria prevalence rate of the district stands at 54.7%, most health facilities including public facilities are not sharing actual data- an indication that they are getting resources and not testing for the disease.
Meanwhile the senior assistant chief administrative officer in charge of health and education, Samali Sabano Epiat, hailed the authorities for moving to weed out unlicensed health practitioners.
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