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The Puntland administration is taking steps to monitor the quality of health services offered at private clinics and to verify the credentials of foreign doctors working in the region, Ministry of Health officials told Sabahi.

"We are re-evaluating foreign doctors who come to work in the country to determine if they have the medical skills they claim to have and if they deserve the opportunity to serve the medical needs of the public," said Puntland Minister of Health Ali Abdullahi Warsame.

"We will only grant permission to the people whose credentials are verified. We will not allow those who do not deserve the opportunity to practice in the country," he told Sabahi.

Over the past few years, an influx of foreign doctors from Asia and other African countries has entered Somalia, Warsame said. He said locals open small clinics and hire foreign practitioners without checking their credentials. He declined to say how many foreign practitioners are currently in the region.

Warsame said the ministry has also exposed Somalis who falsely claim to be doctors, some of whom are nurses and others who have no background in health at all.

"They advertise using local media and constantly move to towns where they are not known," he said. "We will take measures to penalise these people, and we caution the public to be wary of these fake practitioners."

Puntland has used the case of three Kenyans posing as doctors as an example. They had been practicing in Bosaso and Qardho for two years, but upon investigation, their documents turned out to be fraudulent. Two of them were captured after moving to the Bur Salah region in Mudug, while the third was apprehended in Garowe.

Puntland's Ministry of Health Director Abdirisaq Hirsi Hassan said the ministry caught on to the fraud after receiving complaints from the public.

"Up to two fatal cases were reported in Galkayo and Bosaso after the victims were prescribed medications by unqualified practitioners," he told Sabahi. "The complaints also addressed unnecessary surgeries, prescription of wrong medications and additional ailments as a result of unscrupulous medical care. We have proof of the problems caused by these people."

All three are currently in custody and will be deported, Hassan said.

"We have been in contact with the universities they claimed to have attended in Kenya, and we verified that the degrees they are presenting did not come from those universities," Hassan said.

The Puntland Minister of Health also said the parliament is close to passing a new healthcare law.

"The law will enforce restrictions and prevent many of the problems currently plaguing the health industry, such as ineffective medications sold in the country," Warsame said.

Some private healthcare companies have welcomed the government's action and requested close examination of the healthcare system.

"Private health clinics are the only places where people can get full health services since the collapse of the country's health infrastructure during the civil war," said Faysal Ahmed Warsame, president of Qaran Medical Pharmaceuticals headquartered in Garowe.

He said many private clinics offer critical, high-quality healthcare to citizens. "We are seeking profit, but we do not encourage practices that will harm the public," Warsame told Sabahi.

Warsame said he employs medical professionals from Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Egypt, who have been registered with the government and fulfil all appropriate requirements.

"The government's role is to correct mistakes and encourage best practices," he said.