The National President, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr Casmir Ifeanyi has said that quackery in the nation’s health institutions poses a great danger to patients and the society.
Dr Ifeanyi who made the observation during the association’s 18th annual public lecture in Abakaliki maintained that the only way to stem the tide of quackery is to carry along the people, the victims and the likely victims.
“The worry we have about quackery which we are complaining about is not the quackery that is happening in the private, that is easy to curtail. The quackery happening in public health institutions, those owned by government, that is a major trouble. We have tagged that ‘guarded quackery.’ You are a quack under government protection.
“When you employ someone who is not a medical laboratory scientist and post him to be conducting medical tests, he is there protected by government as a quack. When you employ people in other professions outside Medical Laboratory Science and you deploy him to medical laboratory, it’s a big challenge and that is the case in many states of the federation. Government is providing shield for quacks,” he said.