Hyderabad: A series of raids on quacks in recent weeks have revealed how easily they have been able to run hospitals with 10-20 beds where even MBBS doctors were employed. The Telangana State Medical Council (TSMC) is trying to break the quacks’ nexus with doctors and hospitals which give them kickbacks for referring patients.
While bigger hospitals have distanced themselves following the frequent raids, smaller ones continue to be hand in glove with these quacks, especially in rural areas.
For quacks, any kind of partnership — be it from the medical/equipment supply chain or hospital setups with laboratories — works in their favour as they get 20-50% cut for referrals, enabling them to expand their business.
“In many rural areas quacks are running 20-bed hospitals, employing 5-12 employees. These may be qualified nurses or doctors or fake ones. In certain cases we have seen that the entire staff is unqualified even though they claim to be MBBS doctors and trained nurses,” said TSMC vice chairman Dr G Srinivas.
“We are holding a lot of awareness drives which has curbed the nexus between quacks and hospitals to some extent, but it may still be there in rural areas. Whenever a new hospital or clinic is set up, quacks demand a cut.
This is on the decline, but we are working on it,” Srinivas said.
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