Telangana Medical Council uses prescription test to identify Quacks

Hyderabad: To eliminate quackery in the state, the Telangana Medical Council has come up with a quick and effective way to identify fake doctors by simply asking them to write a prescription.

Instead of spending weeks checking forged certificates, TGMC’s anti-quackery team now simply sends decoys to suspected practitioners, asking for a prescription on the spot. After that, they check for possible errors in the prescription.

In this way, the council has exposed hundreds of quacks who fail to write even a basic prescription correctly. In most cases, the prescriptions were vague, incomplete, or illegible.

Also read- Telangana Medical Council suspends 5 doctors for ethical violations, professional misconduct

This year alone, 117 quacks have been caught across the state, as per a TOI media report. Last year, around 150 were booked.

Recently, members of the council inspected a private clinic running under the name Balaji First Aid Centre and caught the man who was pretending to be a registered medical professional. When the suspected quack was asked to write a prescription, the note turned out to be a messy scrawl without dosage, frequency, or treatment duration.

"Like in many other cases, we first sent a decoy patient to get a prescription. The note used brand names instead of drugs, had no clarity, and did not follow any standard format. It was clear the person had no understanding of treatment protocols," said a TGMC official.

According to the National Medical Commission's Ethics and Medical Registration Board, prescriptions must be legible, preferably in capital letters, and use generic names rather than brand names. They should also follow a set format of mentioning dosage strength, frequency, and duration and be based on evidence.

Apart from the prescription tests, TGMC member Dr V Naresh Kumar pointed out another warning sign, including the absence of a letterhead.

"In many cases, quacks write on plain white paper instead of a proper prescription pad. NMC rules mandate that doctors use a letterhead with their name, qualifications, registration number, and contact details. This ensures accountability and makes it easier to track them. Quacks avoid this deliberately to escape scrutiny," he told TOI.

"Quacks often prefer brand names because of the commissions they receive from pharmacies. Most quacks have no idea about dosage or duration. Many are just graduates who once worked as ward boys. They later open small centres and start prescribing injections and antibiotics. Instead of writing ‘paracetamol', they push a specific company's brand so they get a cut from the pharmacy. They also tend to overprescribe strong drugs for instant relief to impress patients, but this can damage organs in the long run and worsen drug resistance," said Dr G Srinivas, TGMC vice-chairman.

Also read- 18 Quacks caught during Telangana Medical Council raids