The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) said efforts to rid Nigeria of quackery were yielding positive results as the council has arrested more than 30 quack doctors and those practising illegally, and also facilitated the conviction of 14 of them at the courts within four years of its creation.
This was disclosed on Tuesday in Abuja during the 51st anniversary of the council by the Registrar of the MDCN, Dr. Abdulmunin Ibrahim, stating that in the area of discipline of practitioners, the council has investigated over 1,550 complaints, where 122 practitioners had been sanctioned so far.
Ibrahim also disclosed that the number of training institutions in the country accredited by the council has increased from one, which was University College Hospital, to 31 in the country within the last 50 years.
“The council has successfully introduced indexing of medical students in medical schools to ensure that training institutions keep to their allotted admission quotas thereby ensuring that standard is maintained.”
He explained that while the council has instituted and enforced the continuing professional development programme, since 2011, the medical and dental practitioners registered presently is over 70,000, from a little over 1,000 in 1963.
Chairman of the Governing Board of the Council, Prof Jonathan Azubuike, appealed to the federal government to allow the council carry out its functions without frequent disruptions.
He explained that if the council was given the enabling support and equal opportunities, the celebration should have taken place in 2013 “but in that year, there was no council in existence and that explained the 50 plus one.
“In the first 25 years of our existence (1963-1988), our existence was never tampered with. In the second phase of our existence, 1988-2013, the MDCN was allowed to do the job, for which it was statutorily created for only 15 years.”
Azubuike contended that for the remaining 10 years, the council did not exist as it was dissolved out of existence.
He said “the regulatory functions we were supposed to carry out, setting standards for the training of medical and dental undergraduates in the universities as well as regulating the practices of the medical and dental professions in Nigeria, could not be done during these periods the council was in limbo.
“Our plea remains the same, and it is simple, we should be allowed to do the job assigned to us, without frequent disruptive dissolution.”
Source: ThisDay
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