Dr Sidhu sends letter to health minister, demands amendment
Wednesday, 30/07/2014
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=111960&boxid=58817&uid=&dat=2014-07-30
Amritsar : Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Health, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has sent a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan regarding amendment on Anti-Quackery Bill. She has even sent a copy of a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal and Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on Tuesday. She demanded immediate amendment of particular bill in lieu of increasing morbidity and mortality, excessive use of steroids for de-addiction and loss of revenue to government.
In her letter, Dr Sidhu informed union minister that in Punjab, a massive drive has been launched against drug addicts and suppliers resulting in shortage of addicting substances. This has led to a huge rush of patients pouring in for de-addiction, but because of mushrooming of quacks, they are falling prey to wrong treatment like steroids abuse which would prove fatal, also illegal sale of ‘Buponorphine’ drug which has gained access at every nook and corner of Punjab at exorbitant rates is going to prove dangerous.
She informed, “Drug addiction is a very serious issue wherein each patient needs to be handled as a separate case with specified dose, 24 hours observation, proper counseling, physical and mental care by yoga, pranayama and thought diversion, increasing social acceptance and proper rehabilitation by government. Such large scale mushrooming of quacks and toothless laws would be a disaster for Punjab.”
Dr Sidhu asserted, “There are many cases of patients who have suffered major health setback and even died while receiving allopathic treatment from unqualified quacks. This is the tip of the iceberg as most cases of malpractice go unreported. It has been reported that number of quacks are increasing in India, both in urban and rural areas. It is estimated that about 10 lakh quacks are practicing allopathic medicine, out of which 4 lakh belong to practitioners of Indian Medicine (Ayurvedic, Sidha, Tibb and Unani). The health of gullible people including poor, critically ill, women and children are at stake.”
