What is quackery? It is a promotion of fraudulent medical practices or treatment method used by people who pretend to be doctors or by unskillful doctors.

‘Health fraud’ is also used as a synonym for quackery. Promoting potentially harmful therapies without adequate warning along with unproven and dangerous medicines is ‘quackery’.

Lots of compounders, assistants, etc who have worked under registered medical practitioners picked up the knowledge through their experience and have put up clinics etc and pretend to be doctors.  

The scourge of quackery has been going on for years. Public get fooled by the advertisements these quacks put on the newspapers and put blind faith on these people who call themselves ‘doctors’. Not only in rural areas, but also in urban areas these quacks are found. Hence public have to be very careful.

Only a qualified registered medical practitioner will give a proper advice to patients and not quacks.

Medical practice— ‘Goa Medical Practitioners act 2004’, states that, it is an act to provide for medical treatment only by qualified medical practitioners and to stop unauthorized practice and medical treatment.

Again, any practitioners doing cross-pathy practice also means ‘quackery’. A practitioner qualified in one system of medicine should practice only that system of medicine. 

Recently, lots of allopathic doctors have also spoken about the doctors of other systems of medicines practicing allopathy.

It was also said that 90 percent of the people prefer allopathy where it seems that either fact is missed or may be didn’t bother to find out the fact.

Nowadays, it is seen that lot of people have switched over to Ayurveda because it  eliminates the root cause of the disease.

On Herald, dated 26 October 2014, under the topic of ‘The Pathological Anomaly’, allopathic doctors insisted that the doctors qualified in one system of medicine aren’t legally permitted to practice other system of medicine. The systems of treatment are vastly different. They study medical pharmacology from first till the last year.

Then, how is it that allopathic doctors can practice other system of medicine? Aren’t the systems of treatment vastly different then? Ayurvedacharya/B.A.M.S. doctors also study dravyaguna/pharmacology during their tenure. Then how is it that the allopathic doctors can prescribe Ayurvedic medicines without any knowledge about the contents of the medicines and the action of each of the contents/ingredients on the human body?

Medical Council of India—Clause 1.1.3 of MCI prohibits allopathic practitioners to prescribe Ayurvedic medicines.

Allopathic practitioners prescribing Ayurveda and homeopathic medicines should also be put under category of ‘Quacks’.  

Public should be very careful when an allopathic doctor prescribes ayurvedic medicines. Because wrong indication and wrong dosage can cause adverse effects.

All pharmacists should also avoid giving Ayurvedic medicines prescribed by an allopathic doctor to their customers. In fact sale of medicines without valid prescription is not allowed by the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) rules, but still this rule is not followed.