Weed Out Quack Herbal Doctors ― Yilo Klo Chief

Quackery is a health scam that brings to the doorstep of desperate persons seeming solutions that are most likely to steal their health―the most priceless of all gifts.

It is for this reason that the Konor of Yilo Klo state, Oklepeme Nuer Anobaah Sasraku II, advocated the need for the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) of the Ministry of Health (MoH) to disestablish the operations of quack Alternative Medicine practitioners in the Country.

According to him, the rate at which herbal medicine practitioners had overwhelmed the Ghanaian media space was alarming adding that most of these practitioners did not have basic knowledge in alternative medicine.

The Yilo Klo State Chief made this call at the first public lecture on alternative medicine held at the Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine in Ashaiman, recently.

“This is dangerous to our health system and interestingly you may not blame these practitioners as some of them have licenses issued by the government statutory body that is supposed to regulate these people.

“I am calling on the Traditional Medicine Practice Council and the media to help us get rid of some of the quacks in the system today,” he requested.

Oklepeme advised that government runs a thorough background check on the qualification of these practitioners and further conduct professional licence exams before issuing licenses for practice.

“The title ‘Doctor’ should not just be given to anybody in the alternative or tradition medicine field…We need to produce quality medical practitioners in the field of alternative medicine to help us address the enormous challenges confronting the medical field and not substandard practitioners,” he noted.

To make the health system even safer, the chief charged the MoH to revoke with immediate effect, the certificates and licenses of practitioners who do not have any educational background in alternative medicine.

He added that, “the names of qualified practitioners be published in newspapers for public health safety.”

Notwithstanding, Oklepeme Nuer Anobaah Sasraku II urged practitioners without formal education in Alternative medicine to enrol at the Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine―the first Holistic Medical College in Ghana, for proper training.

“The MoH should also partner with the institution to help address the enormous challenges in the field as early as possible,” he appealed.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]