The Health Professions Council of Zambia has cited and closed down five health facilities in Luanshya, Kitwe and Ndola on the Copperbelt Province for various violations, contrary to the laws of Zambia.
The facilities closed include Section 5 Mine Clinic and Baluba Shaft Mine Clinic both located in Luanshya.
Others are Copperbelt University Clinic in Kitwe, Sinozam Friendship Hospital also in Kitwe and Hilltop Hospital located in Ndola.
The closures come following ongoing inspections by HPCZ officers on the Copperbelt Province who identified a number of violations.
Section 5 Mine Clinic in Luanshya, was discovered stocking and dispensing expired drugs and medical supplies – operating under poor state of infrastructure as well as lack of clinical supervision and had inadequate essential equipment.
Baluba Shaft Mine Clinic – was found to be stocking and dispensing expired drugs and medical supplies, contrary to section 60 sub section 1 of the Medicine and Allied Substances Act number 3 of 2013 of the Laws of Zambia – the facility had poor storage of medicines including mixing food items with medicines in a fridge, HPCZ inspectors further noticed lack of clinical supervision at Baluba Shaft Mine Clinic.
And the clinic has been running an unlicensed ambulance, contrary to section 36 of the Health Professions Act number 24 of 2009.
And Copperbelt University Clinic has been cited for stocking and using/dispensing various expired medical supplies and drugs at multiple points of care including the emergency tray which violates the Medicine and Allied Substances Act.
Sinozam Friendship Hospital was also found to be stocking and dispensing various expired medical supplies and drugs at multiple points of care i.e Outpatient Department treatment room, Emergency room, laboratory, Theatre, labour ward, medical ward and stores, thereby contravening section 60 subsection 1 of the Medicine and Allied Substances Act number 3 of 2013 of the Laws of Zambia. The facility has been offering unlicensed ambulance services, contrary to the Health Professions Act number 24 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia.
It was further discovered that Sinozam Hospital has been offering unaccredited Anti-retro Viral Treatment services, against provisions of section 36 of the Health Professions Act while Hilltop Hospital’s major violation was stocking and dispensing expired drugs and medical supplies.
Dr. Aaron Mujajati, the Council Registrar said all the five facilities have been closed pursuant to section 50 (1) (a) of the Health Professions Act number 24 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia which provides that the Council may order closure of a health facility where- “the health facility is violating licence requirements in a manner that presents danger of imminent harm to patients.
He said the health facilities will be charged accordingly for breaching the Health Professions Act and will only be allowed to reopen after the Council is satisfied that corrective measures have been taken to address the violations identified.
We can shut down health facilities but somehow we couldn’t shutdown dirty food joints before cholera? Good move though coz these quark docs are deathly too.
Chinese set up exclusive grave yard in Zambia
Close everything, including parliament.
Quack Presidents of H-oppositions H-organisations termed political parties.
Is HPCZ only there to target Private health facilities? We have not heard of any of the terrible government facilities being closed down despite them storing and dispensing expired drugs apart from the poor customer service. My advice to Private Practitioners is form an association to check the excesses of HPCZ. Regulation is not policing! Please organize yourselves and counter sue them! Finding expired drugs and dispensing of expired drugs are two different things! Lawyers seem to be more civilized than doctors! Washing your dirty linen in public is what brings down health workers!
@Zambianosaur, HPCZ goes everywhere including govt institutions. If you have evidence of being given expired drugs, you have a responsibility to report the matter to them. HPCZ isn’t ominipresent but you can act resposibly as it’s agent to alert of many wrongs happening elsewhere.
you don’t seem to understand the act with regards to creation and enforcement of the law governing HPCZ. the organisation has teeth to bite any erring offender.
@2.1
Double standards are what we are talking about here! We understand the Act in question. What we want is equality before the law for both Public and Private institutions unlike what we see on the ground! Secondly, we want the rule of Law and not the rule of men we see with some excited and overzealous officers! We owe it to ourselves to protect ourselves from the many Sadists we have in Zambia who misuse power to enrich themselves in the name of regulatory institutions! At the moment HPCZ sucks together with its sister ZMA!
@2; Most of those drugs are stolen from government institutions by the Doctors who own these private clinics. I don’t think HPCZ is over reacting here. These private clinics are about greed and profits only. Job well done. Too many people have died from negligence.
Government health facilities in many instances you will not find them dispensing expired drugs. In most cases of drugs are about to expire they are either given to the other facility which may need the drug so that it issued out to patients. This does not happen in private
Ubufi!
Not even Private ones dispense expired drugs! The problem is overzealous untrained HPCZ inspectors! Facilities have corners for expired items and even when this is explained to inspectors, to them it means the facility is dispensing expired medicines. Is HPCZ able to substantiate their allegations against these institutions? Are they able to defend some of these fabrications in court? I would also suggest that publishing the reasons for closing a facility is counterproductive as it only serves to destroy the reputation of an institution. These are matters that can be contested in a good court of Law! The way HPCZ is doing things is unconstitutional! A facility is not guilty until proven innocent!
Knowingly dispensing expired drugs? Ooh fack! Things are really wrong in Zambia.
Infact the medical staff should be charged or better fired. It’s better to give patients nothing than expired drugs. How many people have probably died from the expired drugs? These medical personnel are the same individuals who made the hypocritical oath of ‘do no harm’, and now they are doing harm and they keep their jobs, medical licenses etc?
Let’s be serious. We can’t and shouldn’t blame politicians on this one.
Ba ZICA look at some of these professional bodies,they are working,whatt are you doing yourselves apart from collecting our hard earned subscriptions. Do the needful of check ups like LAZ and HPCZ.We are tied of fack accountants, and some with fake qualifications.
I have never heard of Lawyers shutting down each other’s practice the malicious way HPCZ is doing to its own colleagues! Why is it that only the rich private facilities are the ones being targeted? Throwing patients out was not only wrong but uncivilized and unconstitutional! You only do that if the building is on fire. Is HPCZ treating private players as Partners or as enemies? Do they know how much burden the private facilities absorb compared to government facilities? I hope those patients and their relatives thrown out of the hospitals can sue HPCZ for damages! You don’t throw the baby with the bath water! Learn to reason well!
And these private health facilities employ failures, a student nurse fails 3 times, after been declared untrainable one is discontinued. They go and get enployed by private facilities especially on the copperbelt.
Try to check government hospitals and clinics. Most of them should be shut down but of course the health council has no power to do that.
Is HPCZ aware that Government Hospitals have not received their small grants for months and that the private facilities are made to shoulder the burden and even extending a helping hand to government facilities? Instead of closing down facilities that are operating under difficult circumstances under which errors are inevitable, Why not reason with these facilities or supervising their operations instead of playing the witch hunt game? We know HPCZ needs money and that this holding of private facilities at random by closure is all about fundraising but don’t be shortsighted about the bigger picture! Operate within your means by cutting unnecessary overheads!