PHC shutters 634 illegal treatment centres

Lahore: The Punjab Healthcare Commission has shuttered 634 quacks’ treatment centres during the last month.

In the anti-quackery crackdown across the province, the PHC enforcement teams carried out raids on 2,995 treatment centres. Out of these, 397 quackery centres had been converted into other legal ones, while on 84, qualified physicians were treating patients. Besides sealed outlets, the PHC will continue surveillance of 1,865 treatment centres where qualified physicians were working at the time of raids though these were reported to have been run by quacks.

Out of the shuttered businesses, a maximum of 75 were in Lahore, while the rest included Faisalabad 55, Sahiwal 42, Rawalpindi 35, Sargodha 31, Toba Tek Singh 30 and 29 in Okara. Likewise, the remaining closures were distributed across other districts of the province. The majority of the sealed outlets belonged to fake family physicians, while the rest were of hakims, homoeopathic doctors, medical stores, laboratories, dentists and others.

As per a spokesperson of the Commission, so far the PHC’s anti-quackery enforcement teams have visited over 179,000 treatment centres, and closed down 49,575 illegal outlets. “As per the data, 39,246 quacks’ centres have been converted into other businesses,” he added.