A self-styled medical doctor is in the grips of the police for practicing illegally and receiving payment for the practice of medicine without authority.
The suspect, Adams Arimiyaw, was arrested by the Madina Divisional Police at the Covenant Clinic in Madina.
[contextly_sidebar id=”79Efz7PrOF0QNWaaqHwy5lgu6jTs6AbY”]According to the Medical and Dental Council, the suspect had earlier been arrested in 2016 for the same offence, and that the case is still before an Accra Circuit Court.
The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Eli Kwasi Atikpui, who spoke to Citi News about the arrest, noted that, “sometime in February 2017, he stopped going to court under the pretext that he was indisposed. Then a bench warrant was issued for his arrest around June 2017.”
The Council had not head anything from him till the recent arrest.
“He continued to practice at the clinic. We don’t know who opened the place [Covenant Clinic] up for him. On Thursday, we went back there to get the place locked up,” Dr. Atikpui said.
20 fake doctors busted since January 2016
Investigations by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) have led to the arrest of 20 quack doctors across the country since January 2016.
Ten of such fake doctors were busted in Accra, two at Tema, two in the Volta Region, two in the Eastern Region, one in the Brong Ahafo Region and three in the Central Region.
Another fake doctor jailed 17 years in Hohoe
In October this year, one of such self-styled doctors, who was arrested at the Family Community Hospital at Hohoe in the Volta Region, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The convict, Fortune Kamasah, was sentenced on two counts of practicing without authority, and receiving payment for the practice of medicine without authority.
Fraud in the health sector
A Deputy Minister of Health, Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, had recently been lamenting the high rate of fraud in the health sector, describing it as one with the weakest level of accountability in the country.
According to him, some health sector professionals in Ghana charged with responsibilities do not want to be accountable in the discharge of their duties, hence the rising number of corruption-related cases.
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By: Naa Kwarmah Siaw Marfo/citifmonine.com/Ghana