An Indian neurosurgeon, Dr. Raju Basina, has been arrested by officials of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for operating without a practice licence.
The 53 years old doctor was arrested at the Asokoro District Hospital by the Police from Apo Resettlement Division, Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory, following a fresh round of onslaught by the MDCN against quackery.
He was said to have been conducting neurosurgical operations at Asokoro District Hospital for more than a year without licence from MDCN, the regulating agency for doctors and dentists in the country.
Basina was said to be performing a craniotomy (brain surgery) in an operating theatre when police and MDCN’s inspectorate officials led by Dr. Henry Okwuokenye arrived at the hospital for his arrest.
The team was also accompanied by President of the Guild of Medical Directors, Dr. Tony Phillips.
The Chief Medical Director of Asokoro Hospital, Dr. Ahmadu Abubakar, had to prevail on officials of MDCN to wait for him to conclude his surgery before thy could pick him up.
Okwuokenye, who is Head (Inspectorate Unit) of MDCN, told journalists that investigations had revealed that Basina had already been working as a doctor at Asokoro Hospital for many months before eventually applying for a licence in August last year.
He said, “The MDCN is yet to process Basina’s application while response from our counterpart in India’s medical regulating agency is pending. But Basina has continued to work on contract, insisting that he had applied.”
According to him, mere application did not constitute the temporary licence meant for doctors who are trained outside Nigeria, adding that Basina should have waited for a response before practising.
“We wrote a letter to India to tell us about the status and licence of Basina but they have yet to get back to us. Although he claimed to have applied, mere application is not a licence to practice. When we asked him if a doctor could practise in India without licence, he said No. Why then is he practising in Nigeria? Time has come for us to sanitise the system, Nigeria is not a banana Republic where anything can happen,” Okwuokenye stated. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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