The Ministry of Health announced on Friday the formation of the General Medical Council, a regulatory body which will help clamp down on illegal clinics and drugs.

At a joint press conference today by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice, the health minister Dr. Riek Gai Kok stressed the importance this new council in closing legal gaps and protecting victims from a legal vacuum.

In a press release, the government explained that President Salva Kiir issued a provisional order for the establishment of the South Sudan General Medical Council.

“This is an important regulatory body that will bring an end to all mushrooming clinics and health facilities run by non-professional individuals and groups across the country. Let us all thanks and applaud President Mayardit for that,” reads part of the release.

The release claims that a study showed that 63% of private health facilities in Juba are run by people whose medical qualifications cannot be verified. And only 37% of those practicing in Juba town in the private sector have authenticated documents for practicing in the country.

“The study also shown that some facilities inspected are run by herbalists who perform ‘haemorrhoidectomies’ on patients in very poor and unhygienic setting with a fee of 800-1000 SSP per operation. Some clinics did not stop at that, but went as far as inventing a new diagnosis known as malaria-typhoid. There is no disease so far known as malaria-typhoid,” it further reads.

The paper maintains that all these and many other wrong practices will be brought to an end with the establishment of the General Medical Council.

Photo: Medicines in the Aweil Hospital, Northern Bahr al Ghazal (BBC)