A fake doctor, who plies his trade at Hohoe in the Volta Region, has been jailed 17 years by the Hohoe Circuit Court for practicing medicine without a license
Fortune Kamasa was giving a 10 year jail term and a fine of Ghc 12,000 on the charge of practicing medicine without a license by the court, presided over by Mr Yao Acheampong.
The MDC officials posed as patients and visited Kamasa’s health centre to conduct investigations into his activities.
Failure to pay the money, the court ruled, would land Kamasa another two-year jail term.
Information gathered by the Daily Graphic revealed that Kamasa failed to pay the money and as such would serve the full 17-year jail term.
Under the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013, Act 857, the punishment for practicing medicine without license is a minimum fine of not less than Ghc 12, 000 and not more than Ghc 120,000 or an imprisonment term of not more than 20 years or both.
Repeated offender
Passing sentence, Mr Acheampong, held that he took into consideration the fact that Kamasa was arrested and punished for the same offences in 2013, but afterwards went back to his illegal ways to the detriment of public safety.
Kamasa, according to the prosecution, was first arrested on July 18, 2013 for parading himself as a medical doctor at St Joseph’s Hospital at Hohoe. He was found guilty and sanctioned accordingly.
According to the prosecution, the quack doctor did not learn his lessons and went back to his old ways, this time around, changing the name of his facility to Family Community Hospital.
Prosecution said on September 26, 2017, the MDC got information of Kamasa’s illegal activities and dispatched a team of officials to investigate it.
The investigators posed as patients and visited the hospital, where Kamasa introduced himself as a doctor and attempted to administer some injections and drips on them, but the investigators turned it down.
They later reported the matter to the Hohoe Divisional Police Headquaters and Kamasa was arrested.
No training
During investigations, it was revealed that Kamasa had no medical training or whatsoever but he previously worked with a medical doctor who had passed away.
The investigations also revealed that Kamasa’s son who also had no training was working as a laboratory technician at the facility.
He has also been arrested and was currently facing the law.
Fake doctors
Meanwhile, at a press conference today (Monday), the MDC said since January 2016 till date, its investigations had led to the arrest of 20 fake doctors across the country.
The Registrar of the MDC, Dr Eli Kwasi Atikpui, said 10 of the cases were 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.
“Five of the cases have been dealt by the court, some are still in court while others are also under investigations,’’ he said.
Measures
On how to deal with the issue, Dr Atikpui, said, from January 2018, all registered doctors, physician assistants, certified anaesthetists would be assigned a practitioner’s stamp to show proof of their certification.
“The stamp will have specific features such as the practitioner’s name, number and other unique features,
“We will also insist that any medical practitioner registered by the MDC will have to work with their name tags. This is to ensure that people who are not comfortable with the work of the practitioners can lodge a complaint with the MDC without any difficulty,’’ he said.
