LAHORE: The Punjab Healthcare Commission has shutdown 75 illegal treatment centres in different cities of the province.

According to the PHC spokesperson on Sunday, during the last week, the PHC teams carried out raids on 589 treatment centres. As many as 207 quacks' outlets had been either shutdown or converted to other businesses out of the raided centres, while on 27 healthcare establishments, qualified professionals have started serving the people.

On the other hand, the PHC has also started surveillance of 266 treatment centres where qualified persons were present at the time of the visits, but these have been reported to be run by quacks.

From the closed down centres, 13 were in Mianwali, 12 in Vehari, 11 each in Lahore, Sialkot and Lodharan, Rawalpindi 10, 3 each in Mandi Bahauddin and Sheikhupura, while one was in Hafizabad. Laboratories, dental centres, pharmacies, maternity homes, optical shops, circumcision centres, etc were included in the closed down illegal centres.

Besides these, healthcare establishments of those 'hakeems' and homoeopathic doctors were also shut down where allopathic treatment was being given.

In Lahore, Ali Maternity Home, Dental Square, Bokhari Medical Complex, Fakhri Clinic, Shahzad Dental Lab, Riaz Homoeopathic Clinic, Waris Clinic, Arif Clinic, Tamseel Dental Clinic, Billo Clinic and Razaque Clinic were sealed.

The spokesperson of the Commission also mentioned that so far the PHC visited around 96,000 treatment centres, over 31,000 got closed down and imposed a fine of Rs 666.26 million on the quacks.