415 quackery centres sealed

LAHORE:The Punjab Healthcare Commission has closed down 415 fake treatment centres in 30 cities during the last four weeks in an ongoing crackdown on backstreet clinics.

The teams of the commission raided 1,840 medical centres and closed down 415 businesses, where quacks were working. On the other hand, qualified physicians have started providing medical facilities at 137 centres. Apart from this, monitoring of 856 such treatment centres has started where there were qualified physicians at the time of the raids. Two hospitals in Shakargarh (District Narowal), that is, Syeda Zakia Khanum Hospital and Gynaecology Hospital (Norkot Town), were also sealed because there were no qualified staff in these hospitals, and their respective administrations had not even obtained licences from the commission. Among the other cities, where large-scale operations were conducted against quacks, 52 in Lahore, Rawalpindi 33, Sheikhupura 32, Multan 28, whereas 20 each in Faisalabad and Muzafargarh quackery centres were sealed. A PHC spokesperson said the commission has so far raided more than 141,000 treatment centres and sealed the businesses of 39,924 operators, while 33,245 quacks have also closed their illegal businesses.