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Hello, am Dr T. A. B. Sanusi, I became the Acting Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) - the professional health regulatory agency for the professions of Medicine, Dentistry and Alternative Medicine in Nigeria. ,on 23rd December, 2016
I completed my medical training in Dentistry in 1987 from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
You are welcome to ask me questions by posting it in the comment section below. I will do my best to answer your questions on Wednesday, 20th September 2017 at 2pm.
Great
Congratulations on your appointment as the leader of this noble profession.
Sir, the medical, dental and alternative medical profession is being polluted by quacks, who wants to make quick money at all cost, how do you intend tackling this menace?
Doctors go through a lot to get their annual practicing licences renewed. However, even after appropriate payment to the council, the licences are never released. This I am tempted to believe is rediculing the whole exercise, how do you intend handling this?
Thank you in anticipation for your response, please
Whilst thanking you for asking these questions,I realised that it was dated 8/9/17 It then means that our present web portal had addressed this issue of doctors not getting their practising licenses after making appropriate payments. The present portal system will automatically generate your licence for you after doing the needful on verifying your details .
Congratulations Sir. It's my pleasure interacting with you on this platform.
(1) Do you honestly think that the MDCN has the needed capacity and bite to fully regulate alternative medicine practitioners (AMP) in Nigeria? I ask this because the spate of very unethical and crude practice by these AMPs is not only unbearable but nauseating. They buy considerable space in the airwaves (radio and television) and even in the print media to advertize their outfits and wares. They say all sorts of gibberish to deceive the ignorant and gullible public. They tell them what they want to hear laden with lies and deceit. Yet MDCN claims to regulate them. Even when these deceitful adverts fall foul of the provisions of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), the AMPs are never sanctioned but are rather let off the hook.
I can give examples: Some include one notorious Osa naturalist centre in Enugu, one mama & papa Ijebu, also in Enugu, etc.
What is the MDCN doing to stem this dangerous and ugly tide, Sir? Don't you think the MDCN is biting more than it can chew by including AMPs as a component of healthcare upon which it can perform regulatory function? Do you think the literacy level in Nigeria is currently ideal or ripe to formally endorse AMPs as ethical providers of healthcare. Don't you think, Sir, that these uncouth AMPs have simply been emboldened by this premature endorsement?
(2) The MDCN introduced the online renewal of annual practicing licence about 2 years ago. Why has the non-despatch of these licences to doctors who have duly renewed continued just as it was before the resort to e - renewal, Sir? This is inspite of e-mail reminders to MDCN. Yours truly is a practical example, Sir.
(3) Quackery in orthodox medical practice has continued unabated in Nigeria, Sir. What specific measures are the MDCN taking to abate or drastically reduce this cankerworm and how reassuring are these measures?
-- Dr Victor Dinwoke is a Consultant Ob/Gyn at Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu, Nigeria.
Thanks for the questions raised,on the Alternative Medicine Practitioners, the fact is that less than 30 had been registered by MDCN up to date, therefore those mascurading via TV adverts are to the best of my knowledge quacks. By our law MDCN has nothing to do with these people,it is a matter for state to handle and at the best we only come in as Prosecution Witness if the case charged to court by the relevant state agency. Same goes for Quacks.
My advise in respect of tackling quacks is to adopt the system adopted by Lagos State Government which in my mind is the only practical way that had been adopted in this country as of now.
Good morning Acting Registrar sir.
I am unable to input my remita receipt into the new platform for registration for practicing license. I have sent mails on the support platform and I have yet to get any response. Please what do I do to complete my registration before the deadline.
Thank you for your prompt response
Thanks for the question,the fact is that you don't attend NMA functions,if you do there wouldn't be the need for you to ask this question because it was exhaustively discussed at the last NEC Meeting of NMA in Lagos where MDCN had a stand to attend to doctors in need of our services. Pls try and participate in NMA activities.
I wish to advise that you should try and update you details in our new web portal so that your name can be included in the electronic register that is presently under compilation.
Good Morning Mr Ag Registrar.
This is to notify the MDCN that the graduates of Ife medical school , about a month after induction, are yet to get any license , either hard or soft copy. In fact they paid for before the commencement of the online registration and license procurement.
Now they can neither get a hard copy license or go further to pay another sum of money for an online registration which is not even certain they'd get.
Pls Sir We (the Recent Graduates of Ife) would appreciate if something can be done as soon as possible . Thanks
The issue raised should be resolved with the school and not MDCN. We don't waste time preparing the Provisional Licenses for our newly qualifieds.
Dear Dr Sanusi,
Why is it that I cannot get a response from the MDCN? I am a dentist who qualified in 1994 am practicing in England and have kept renewing my registration in Nigeria for most part of the last 10 years. My profile was deleted on the portal and since I registered, my profile has not been reactivated. It says it take 48 hours, it has been over 3 weeks. No body answers calls, no one responds to emails. No council in any other country does these things.
Dr. Irene,its unfortunate you are not in the country now, one of the features of our new web portal is to eliminate Quacks and how this is done is any change in your details will be detected. Once this is detected you will not be granted access meaning that you might need to come to Council with all your relevant documents. At the moment we want to be sure we are dealing with registered practitioners and not quacks. This is just one of the ways to serve you better and the shut our system from the quacks.
Thank you for your response.
I can appreciate that the MDCN is trying to get rid of Quack Doctors. However, all I am trying to do is renew my registration. My profile was deleted, not sure why, as nothing has changed. How do I get the MDCN to grant me access to the portal to renew my registration? This is my reason for reaching out to you here, as nothing else has worked so far.
Dear Sir,
Welldone on your efforts to restructure the institution. Sir, I applied for my certificate of full registration 4 months ago which I had paid for on completing housemanship 6 years ago. I was informed that my postings overlapped and the MDCN wrote to UDUTH where I did my housemanship the reply came that I completed my postings and that mistakes occurred when I filled my form.
On getting back to the MDCN with a copy of the letter written by UDUTH to the MDCN I was informed that a new portal is being created and I would have to wait another 2-3 weeks because they are yet to be trained on how the e-portal works. They offered to write a letter of introduction for me to the country I want to go only for them to claim again that they could not locate my file.
They saw my file when they said my postings overlapped but they couldn't locate it to give me the letter of introduction. If they can't find it how would they be able to work on it for me to get my certificate of full registration?
Sir, I would be very grateful if you could help me look into this matter and resolve it.
It seem to me the MDCN staff are have become a cog in the wheel of Doctors progress in Nigeria.
Thank you Sir.
Maryam.
Good evening Sir..
As regards the Mdcn licence for newly inducted doctors...I was debited twice ..I made a complaint but its yet to be reversed/refunded....I anticipate your reply Sir