Muzaffarpur, Sept. 6: The state health department would soon lodge FIRs against persons whose medical degrees were found to be fake.

The chief medical officer (CMO) of the district, Dr P. Sinha, last night asked his assistant, Dr J.P. Ranjan, to lodge the cases.

Sources said action would be initiated against 45 medics, allegedly practising without proper degrees. The list of fake doctors, include five paediatrics, two orthopaedic surgeons and 15 dentists.

Sinha told The Telegraph that the health department was ready to take action against the fake doctors and dentists who were cheating the patients. Sinha added that he had referred the case to Ranjan.

Recently, the CMO and other officers raided a number of clinics in Juran Chapra, Zero Mile Chowk, Station Road, Bank Road and Barhampura areas of the town. They discovered that a number of medics practising from these clinics did not have proper degrees.

The fake doctors, however, advertised their services on big banners, with lists of degrees that they did not have, to lure patients.

The officers also seized medical equipment from these clinics. They tried to nab the fake medics too but were unable to do so.

The CMO said he had also written to the district unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Indian Dental Association (IDA), and sought details of the degrees of the doctors whose names had been included on the list.

Sources said the office-bearers of the IMA had tried to contact the doctors whose clinics were raided to furnish the details of their degrees. However, the medics failed to submit their degrees for verification.

“Only a few doctors responded and the details have been sent to the health department for necessary perusal,” said Dr N. Kinjalk, a member of the IMA unit.

Sources said the recent raids were a follow-up of the drive started by the health department in July.

IDA had also prepared a list of the fake dentists. The details of these persons have been submit-ted to Singh, for necessary action.

The IDA has decided to take stern action against the persons involved in fleecing gullible patients. “These fake dentists are tarnishing the image of the medical fraternity,” president of IDA Dr R.N. Sinha told The Telegraph.

The IDA had given an ultimatum to these dentists to submit copies of their degrees for necessary perusal and verification.

However, the 19 dentists, whose names featured in the list of the fake doctors, failed to submit them despite repeated reminders.

“Even representatives of the IDA met them and asked them to show their degrees for verification but even then, they failed to produce their degrees. After this, the IDA concluded that they were fake dentists practising using fake degrees. None of these persons have a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree,” said the IDA president.