The Ghana Medical and Dental Council, in collaboration with the police, has arrested a fake doctor who operated a private clinic at Abelemkpe, a suburb of Accra.

 The suspect, Allotey Addo, who had been operating for six years, was chanced upon while treating patients at the Asamoah Clinic on November 1, 2018.

Reports from the Medical and Dental Council revealed that even though Addo claimed he had been trained as a medical doctor at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (KNUST), Kumasi and completed in 2004, after which he did his housemanship at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, he was unable to produce certificates to back his claim that he was a certified medical practitioner.

Licence

Addo has also not been registered by the Medical and Dental Council, the regulatory body.

A patient on admission at the time of the arrest, according to the council, was evacuated to the emergency unit of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.

Arrest

Narrating the arrest to the media, the Deputy Registrar of the council, Dr Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, said on November 1, 2018, the Medical and Dental Council, as part of its routine visit to some health facilities in the city, spotted a clinic at Abelemkpe near the Marwako Restaurant with the name Asamoah Clinic.

He said members of the council met Addo in the consulting room of the clinic and he introduced himself as the doctor in charge of the facility.

Dr Banyubala said the team, after introducing themselves to Addo and telling him of their mission, requested to see his certificates, which he could not produce.

The team also discovered that Addo performed the duties of a medical officer, pharmacist and laboratory technician at the facility and a young female, those of a nurse. She would not mention her name.

The deputy registrar said Addo was arrested together with the young woman on November 7 and handed over to the Tesano police.

Items found

Dr Banyubala said both used and unused needles and syringes, assorted drugs and pregnancy test kits, forceps, a dilapidated sterilising machine, as well as patients’ folders and some books, among other items, were found at the facility.

It was also found out that the facility had about six wards, an operating theatre, a pharmacy, a delivery room, laboratory and one consulting room.

Dr Banyubala said the patient on admission told the team that she and her family had been attending the clinic for years but did not know it was operating illegally.

Samples of the drugs and other items, including two laptop computers, two stethoscopes, two foolscap notebooks that served as patients’ attendance book and five patients record sheets, were taken away by the team to aid in investigations into the matter.

The Tesano District Police Commander, Superintendent George Atia, who confirmed the arrest, urged the public to be on the lookout for quacks.