The Nigerian Medical Association, Rivers State chapter, said on Wednesday that it arrested 12 suspected quack medical doctors and shut down four illegal hospitals in the state.
Dr. Ibitrokoemi Krukrubo, the state NMA Chairman, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Port Harcourt, Rivers State said the suspects had been handed over to the police.
Krukrubo said the suspects were not qualified to practice medicine and did not have the requisite skills and knowledge to treat patients.
He said the arrest was part of its drive to rid the state of quack doctors so as to restore sanity and regain the public confidence in the medical profession in the state.
He said: “We have shut down about four clinics and we are still investigating others.
“There’s a way we operate: we get the information and the investigation can sometimes take up to two months.
“When we have the facts, we work with the (state) ministry of health and the police and then shut down the hospitals.
“The public needs to be vigilant.
“Before you (patient) can trust a doctor, you have to be sure that the person is a doctor.
“The only way to be sure is through the NMA identification card and any other identification card should not be accepted by patients.”
Krukrubo called on patients to insist on sighting the NMA identification card from any doctor before allowing him to treat them.
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