**The authorities in Sierra Leone are closing down nearly 50 clinics in the capital, as they say they are staffed by people with little or no training.**The deputy minister of health told the BBC people had been killed in botched operations, and that inappropriate treatment was given to patients.
He also said many of those working in the clinics were foreigners.
Sierra Leone’s health care system was badly damaged during the 11 years of civil war that ended in 2002.
Many doctors fled the country.
“These people came into our country illegally, and established illegal structures under the pretext of giving out medical services in order to make quick money”
Mohamed Koroma
Deputy Health Minister
Diary: Sierra Leone slum medic](http://www.paklinks.com/2/low/africa/7577668.stm)
A special task force set up by the health ministry says it has discovered a long and shocking list of medical disasters in the clinics.
Many patients have been given inappropriate treatment, such as numerous expensive saline drips which they were wrongly told were cures for diseases like malaria and typhoid.
In one particularly disturbing case, a health official described how a man with appendicitis had had his genitals amputated.
Deputy Health Minister Mohamed Koroma said the problem was a legacy of the civil war.
“These people came into our country illegally, and established illegal structures under the pretext of giving out medical services in order to make quick money,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.