IMA is against Quacks: IMA President

Hyderabad: Mr. Koppula Harishwar Reddy, Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly inaugurated Clinic 2000, a Medical Centre for Obese Children at Himayatnagar in the city recently by cutting a ribbon and lighting the lamp. Speaking immediately after the inauguration, he said it would be the most sought after clinic as the population of obese children is growing by leaps and bounds. He appreciated Dr. V. Ravindranath Reddy, Managing Director of the Clinic for thinking of such a clinic on the lines of the few speciality centres already in place in developed countries like United States of America, which Mr. Reddy claimed to have seen himself on his recent visit. Speaking further he added that the clinic for childhood obesity is perhaps the only of its kind in the state.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. M.V. Rangareddy, President of Indian Medical Association(IMA) of A.P said more and more children are becoming obese because there were no grounds in schools to play, so physical activities didn’t exist. Hence children add more weight to their body, which will soon prove to be very dangerous. Further he added that today’s parents and teachers are concerned only about homework and unfortunately they hardly care about sufficient exercises for the body and mind of the child. He stated that obesity is no longer a status of personal image, it was recently declared by World Health Organization (WHO) as a disease. He lamented that obesity is purchased by spending money, which is very sad state of affairs in our society. By obesity not only one suffers himself, there is a huge loss to society. If an obese is a government or private servant, he works slow, gets tired easily, number of working hours are reduced and eventually quality of work also suffers.

He added that Obese clinics must be run by only professionals like Dr. V. Ravindranath Reddy, who is not only is a qualified doctor, but also a Bariatric Physician(trained in Over Weight management). One has to have MBBS as a minimum requirement to run obesity clinic, Dr. Ranga Reddy said. Talking about quacks springing up in every nook and corner, he said IMA has been fighting against such people and urged public not to patronise such unprofessionals. He added that East Godavari district alone has as many as two and half lakh quacks, Medchal town and its surrounding villages put together have about twenty thousand of them. Replying to a question on qualified doctors declining to go to rural areas to serve, he differed saying that today surgeries are taking place in taluka and mandal headquarters. You will find super specialists in the most smallest towns in the city, he said and added that it used to be so earlier and not any longer.

The inaugural function was graced by several obese patients, doctors, nutritionists and health conscious freaks.

-MK
Reachout's News Bureau
October' 2003

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