On Friday, a health department team found a man with no medical degree operating a hospital out of a two-storey building in Indiranagar with complete OPD and in-patient facilities and performing surgeries also. 22 more such clinics and hospitals were identified in the city during an ongoing crackdown on quacks.

Dr DK Bajpai, additional chief medical officer, Lucknow said that all the 23 clinics/hospitals have been already sealed. The person who was caught in Indiranagar has no medical degree. An FIR has been lodged against him but is yet to be arrested. In nine other cases, the owners could not provide their medical degrees on the spot and have been given two days to produce their credentials.

Bajpai also said that in five cases, the clinic/hospital proprietor escaped on seeing the inspection teams. The teams have caught six persons — three with homoeopathy degree, two with Unani and one with Ayurvedic — for prescribing allopathic medicines. In Maal area, a person with diploma in pharmacy and one more person who had previously worked as a compounder were also found running allopathic clinics. They are going to lodge FIRs against all of them.

The inspection covered eight areas in and around the city, namely Indiranagar, Khadra, Chinhat, Maal, Malihabad, Itaunja, Mohanlalganj and Malihabad. Five quacks were caught in Mohanlalganj and Maal, respectively followed by four in Malihabad and three in Itaunja.

When asked why the health department had not caught the quacks earlier, the additional chief medical officer said that crackdowns were carried out from time to time. But, he accepted that this was the first time that a huge drive had been launched following court directives.