A recent report by IMS Health India puts the number of quacks in urban India more than qualified MBBS doctors.
A quack according to IMS Health is someone not have an MBBS degree but still prescribes Allopathic medicines. So there are basically three categories of quacks. the first category is those who have no degree at all. These form a big chunk of those prescribing medicines in cities.
The second category are those with Ayurvedic, Yunani, Siddha, Homeopathic degrees but prescribing Allopathic medicines.
And the final category are those with Integrated Medicine, Alternative Medicine and Electro homeopathy degree.
All three categories are not allowed to prescribe Allopathic (Pharmaceutial) medicines, but do so in the cities.
Mostly the doctor pay in the cities is very skewed towards the super specialists with Oncologists (cancer), Cardiologists / Cardiac Surgeons(heart) and Neuro surgeons/ Neurologists (brain) who make most of the money. Almost 4-5 times that made by the middle layer that is made up of Ophthalmologists (Eye) , Pediatricians (Childcare) and Gynecologists.
The bottom layer of qualified doctors are dentists, general physicians and internal medicine practioners. Also as the costs are high this gives a scope for the quacks who charge a fraction for the same services.
So on one hand the Govt wants to send new MBBS doctors to rural areas while our own cities are filled with quacks. Also the charge disparity between the various specialists. Fore more on the report please visit the IMS Health India site.
Dear Concern, I am completely disagree with your categorization of Ayurvedic/Unani doctors under the category of quacks. If you go through the definition of quack given by oxford dictionary it means QUACK is a person who dishonestly claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine. Here they have not specified it to a MBBS degree holder as a authoritarian for medicine.
Moreover in India during Ayurvedic/Unani curriculum modern medicine subjects are also taught. Then how can a qualified Ayurvedic/Unani doctor be a quack. If its will be the scenario then in modern medicine curriculum they wont teach them about Ayurvedic/Unani medicine but still some allopathic doctors prescribe ayurvedic medicines then are also put under the category of QUACKS because they are prescribing something which has not been taught to them.
Dr Monga While I hear your concern, the fact is that Unnani and Ayurvedic doctors are not qualified to prescribe allopathic medicine, but they do and hence the term quack…