By Kuda Pembere
Health Professions Authority, a body comprising of eight councils regulating various professions in the health sector held a media familiarization talk on Tuesday briefing the press on the mandates and operations of these councils.
This comes following the realization that the public were largely unaware of their rights and where to report illicit practices by professionals.
The HPA is an umbrella body for Natural Therapists Council of Zimbabwe, Allied Health Practitioners Cuncil of Zimbabwe (AHPCZ), Pharmacists Council of Zimbabwe (PCZ), Nurses Council of Zimbabwe(NCZ), Medical Rehabilitation Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe(MRPCZ), Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MLCSPCZ), Environmental Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (EHPCZ), and Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ).
“This event is the first of its kind and we believe that this engagement will not only have a rapport with the Fourth Estate but also change the narrative when it comes to health reporting.
“As a health regulatory, we believe that the authority and media have a great job in playing when it comes to public safety. While the media plays a watchdog role, the authority and the council will manage the day-to-day operations of the authority institutions and the health practitioners respectively,” said Mrs Clotilda Chimbwanda, the HPA Acting Secretary General in a speech read on her behalf by the Authority’s finance manager Ms Tafadzwa Zambara.
PCZ registrar Mr Alois Karonga said their organization governs not only the pharmacist but other professionals that dispense prescriptions.
“So, Pharmacists Council of Zimbabwe is a special board that regulates pharmacists, pharmacists technicians, optometrists, ERA specialists, orthopists and dispensary opticians. But ordinarily if you say Pharmacists Council of Zimbabwe, the assumption is that we regulate pharmacists only.
“But from what I’ve alluded to, we have other professionals, one of them in the pharmacist profession, optometrists and hearing aid specialists and so on. So, in essence, we don’t regulate pharmacists only, we regulate other professionals. When we say optometrists, optometrists are not ophthalmologists.
“But the reason why these other professionals were placed under the Pharmacists’ Council of Zimbabwe, I don’t have a clear answer, but what I gathered was, they also dispense prescriptions.
“So the common denominator is that all professionals under the Pharmacists’ Council of Zimbabwe dispense prescriptions,” he said.
Katie Rose from the Natural Therapist Council of Zimbabwe said they are fairly new in the regulatory space having been established in 2020.
“I think all of us as councils have the same mandate or similar mandate. I think where the difference is, is the actual practices, the fields of practice at the time, which included traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, Ayurveda practice, homeopathy, naturopathic medicine, just a few.
“But as time’s been going on, we’re expanding on those practices to include others such as aromatherapy, energy medicine, naturopathic oncology, reflexology, other oriental medical practitioners, manual aesthetic practitioners, massage practitioners. So I think we’ve got a big field of practitioners to help regulate, educate as well,” she said.
AHPCZ registrar Ms Farirai Maziriri said they have under their purview 20 professions ranging from ambulance technicians, radiographers, psychologists, to mention but these.
“So as councils, we regulate health professions, meaning to say every health profession in Zimbabwe is mandated to have a registration certificate or a license. You cannot move around, purport to be what you are not, if you do not have a license. You should have a license that is issued by the relevant board, that is a council,” she said adding that the public have the right to ask health practitioners to produce their practising and registration certificates.
From EHPCZ, Mr Simbarashe Mupesa said while other councils focus on curative part of health, theirs is preventive.
The NCZ registrar Mrs Grace Madondo said they have over 36 000 nurses under their purview.
“So those are the five primary registers we have. So with the general nurses, that is the largest group of nurses because that’s where now we have nurses who would then go further and do post basic courses.
“For example, midwifery and midwifery has the largest number. 60% of our post basic qualified nurses is midwives. We have intensive care nurses, we have renal nurses, ophthalmic nurses, orthopedic nurses, theater nurses. There are quite many,” she said.
MLCSPCZ registrar Ms Agnes Chigora said their mission is to uphold, promote the high standards in the diagnosis, management and treatment of diseases by saving patients, healthcare providers through applying the tools of science and pathology in supporting public health in an efficient and professional manner, not opposite, but professional manner.
“The issue of laboratory medicine, people often confuse what laboratory medicine and any biological sciences degree program. They go and train in any biological sciences degree, they come to council, I want to be registered.
“As another council said, we ensure that each institution which is going to train in laboratory medicine does have adequate training facilities. The lecturers we are training, are they qualified? This we do through our education committee. In Zimbabwe we have so many universities, believe you me, we only have three, which are training laboratory medicine in Zimbabwe.
“And it breaks my heart that some students who go and train in various laboratories, they come all the way, some come from Bulawayo, we have come to register only for us to tell them that your qualification is not registrable. Those students who are training laboratory medicine, we register them on the very first day they sit on the desk on the students register,” she said.
