74-year-old quack doctor arrested at Kisseman

A 74-year-old man has been arrested for operating a hospital at Kisseman with nursing training experience obtained from the 37 Military Hospital in the 1970s.

Clinton Osei Kwame Sarfo, the suspect, has converted his three-bedroom into a consulting room where he attends to unsuspecting patients. He also uses his living room as the outpatient department.

He was arrested by officers from the investigating team of the Dental and Medical Council and the Achimota Police.

Information

Briefing journalists after the arrest, the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr Eli Kwasi Atikpui, said the council received information about the activities of an individual who was practising as a medical doctor in his residence at Kisseman in Accra.

“The suspect is widely known in the area as “doctor" and engages in a wide range of medical treatment for residents in the locality. We found that he could cut open sterilised water or IVF fluids, popularly known as drip, and give it to his patients in a glass for them to drink,” said Dr Atikpui.

When a team of investigators visited his facility located adjacent to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, and the Church of Pentecost at Kisseman, they found him attending to patients in his living room.

They also found that he uses an inner room as his dispensary treatment and injection room.

He had no nurses, laboratory technicians or any other auxiliary staff assisting him.

Items retrieved

When a search was conducted, the team found a large quality of assorted medications, bags of IV fluids, vials of injectable, cantons of syringes and needles.

The items were retrieved and have since been deposited at the Achimota Police Station.

“We are getting worried over the increasing number of people holding themselves as medical practitioners and the rate at which people are patronising their services,” said Dr Atukpui.

He said Sarfo had “no laboratory, no assistance. In line with standards of care, you don’t just diagnose based on what the patients tell you,” he said.

Humanitarian grounds

Speaking with journalists after his arrest, the suspect admitted that he had been treating people in his residence but explained that he was doing it on humanitarian grounds, as he saw it as a way of assisting people in his community.

He said he was a retired nurse who registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 1972 and showed a certificate from the Nursing and Midwifery Council issued in 1972.

Although he could not provide any evidence to show he was in good standing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, he said he worked with 37 Military Hospital and the Tema Oil refinery (TOR) before his retirement.

“After my retirement, people will come to me when they are sick, and they will refer to me as doctor so I had to help people with minor conditions such as headaches and malaria,” he said.

Sarfo told journalists that he charged between GH¢5 and GH¢15 for his services and that he had plans of quitting at the end of this year.

He is the second suspected quack doctor to be arrested in three weeks by the Medical and Dental Council in Accra.