A committee in Kano State’s Tudun Wada Local Government Area has reported that it has found 130 pharmacies and hospitals staffed by quack physicians, some of whom hold the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
According to the committee established by the Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Tijjani Matata, one of the bogus physicians is an electrical engineer who ran an eight-bed facility with claims to treat various illnesses.
A woman who was seeking treatment for malaria was given HIV-positive blood by one of the bogus doctors, according to the committee’s chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Karafe.
Karafe said, “It is disheartening that we even found an electrical engineer operating a private hospital and attending to patients; prescribing drugs, administering drips, blood and even attending to pregnant women. One of them even added HIV-positive blood to one woman.
“We even found one who is a traditional medicine vendor, but he admitted cholera patients. We had to evacuate them to the hospital for proper treatment. Most of them don’t even have basic knowledge about health.
“One of them said he was a nurse, and later we discovered he only has a secondary school leaving certificate.”
Karafe further revealed that the investigation followed a series of complaints received from residents over the proliferation of private hospitals and pharmacies in their various villages.
