The Health Professions Council of Zambia has withdrawn recognition and approval of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and the Bachelor of Dental Surgery after a recent compliance monitoring inspection revealed a number of irregularities.
These include gross over-enrollment of students, an inadequate number of lecturers, engaging unregistered and unlicensed lecturers that are health practitioners and failure to index students.
Copperbelt University has since been ordered to immediately discontinue offering two programmes at its School of Medicine for failure to meet set standards in accordance with the Health Professions Act Number 24 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia.
In the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programme, the University over-enrolled by 494 students bringing the total number pursuing this programme to 794.
The lecturer-student ratios therefore, exceed the recommended 1 to 50 for theory for students in Clinical years 3 to 5 and the practical ratios of 1 to 10 for students in both the foundation and Clinical years while all the 794 students are not indexed with HPCZ.
Another major finding was the lack of lecturers in several courses including Psychology, Histology, Pathology and Body Dysfunction.
HPCZ Registrar Aaron Mujajati said the above situation is indicative of the fact that HPCZ cannot be assured of the safety of the public once exposed to the services of graduates in the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and it is clear that CBU currently has no capacity to offer this programme, thus the decision to withdraw the certificate of approval and subsequent closure of the programme.
With regard to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme, Dr. Mujajati said it is a requirement that the course coordinator and all lecturers that are health practitioners are duly registered with HPCZ or General Nursing Council- GNC, as well as have valid practicing licenses before a training programme may be approved by the Council.
He said it is also a requirement that all lecturers with a background in health-related fields be registered with HPCZ or GNC as per their qualification.
Dr. Mujajati said HPCZ inspectors however, discovered in the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme among other anomalies that the Copperbelt University School of Medicine engaged an unregistered course coordinator who has been practicing without a valid license since January 2017, that two other lecturers are not registered with HPCZ and that all 198 students under the programme are not indexed.
He said the Programme cannot be allowed to continue with the above-mentioned irregularities, consequently, the certificate of approval stands withdrawn and the programme closed.
“Students and other stakeholders must note that prior to the closure of programmes at the CBU School of Medicine, the HPCZ through its Training Department conducted an initial inspection in April this year, which exposed various shortcomings among them failure to meet some requirements under Institutional setting, Faculty, Educational Resources and Quality Improvement. The University was instructed to put in place remedial measures by 30th August 2018 and when inspectors recently went back to assess the situation, they recognised that while efforts were made to ensure smooth running of programmes, the Institution still did not meet set standards in various areas identified in this statement”, Dr. Mujajati added.
He said out of a total number of 51 lecturers teaching the MBChB programme, only one has evidence of being registered with HPCZ and on that account the Council cannot ascertain the qualifications and competences of the entire teaching faculty at the School of Medicine.
Dr. Mujajati said the Health Professions Council of Zambia has since advised Copperbelt University that the two programmes withdrawn will only be reinstated after all recommendations have been addressed, at which point the University can put in a fresh application to the Council for a reassessment.
He said no academic activities shall be conducted in the cited programmes until CBU demonstrates capacity to produce safe Health Practitioners adding that HPCZ will not tolerate Schools that are familiar with the rules, to deliberately continue inconveniencing students and parents.
Sad! They don’t make them the way they used to make those I used to clean toilets for at UTH any more. It is HAKAINDE’s fault.
HPCZ is an opposition. Look at that, that state-of-the-art School of Medicine was officially opened by his and only Dr. Edgar Changwa Lungu.
HPCZ also closed clinics built by PF.
Everything PF is developing that HPCZ is closing down
Under PF, we have seen a drastic drop in educational standards.
We have also seen too many fake Doctors, like Lusambo and Kambwili.
What is it about PF and rewarding under achievement?
Under Hichilema Mental theft we have seen the education standards drop into dung.
This is what Chilufya Chitalu, Minister of Health calls the transformation agenda, graduating half baked medics- recipe for disaster. Instesd of addressing the problem, they will start a witch hunt against HPCZ
What is to index?
Its a joke that they were being offered in the first place. Zambian doctors are pretty sub-par. Just look at Mujajati, Miti etc.
But when is HPCZ going to close UTH? Apply standards uniformly don’t be selective, we all know that UTH is a final destination from which very few come back, the standards at UTH are terrible. Also HPCZ should address the problem of our murderous nursing staff in Zambia, these witches will kill you should you be unlucky to be admitted and your relatives complain about the dirty sheets or dirty and reused drip lines, these nurses are very cruel I tell you and we need to see those that kill patients being arrested and convicted accordingly.
Sanity sanity sanity this is what is needed. This is a good move and thumbs up! We need professionalisms in all institutions of learning.
No wonder oxford university downgraded these institutions to college status!! It’s now official…College of Zambia (COZA) formerly UNZA and CBCO, formerly CBU
They believe other people better, the MUZUNGU ANIKONDE Galu Watchers in Zambia than their own.
How is MUSHINDO University doing?
Loool… and Kapasa Makasa University or whatever!
Can you name a human being MUSHINDO!!
MCS must be turning in his resting place … with the most expensive Toll Gate last week and now his Christine Kasebanya school of medicine closed by a self-opinionated, overzealous Junior Doctor drunk with HPCZ power misusing the law and addresses himself as CEO – awe sure. He can as well close everything and continue Decampaigning PF – serves them right!
This is a good move by the HCPZ but it took the minister to tell them to do their jobs is when they went after government institution such as CBU otherwise they were just busy with private institutions such as Eden and Lusaka apex etc. Next they should also inspect government clinics and hospitals like they did with private clinics and hospitals.
Am always against the use of the “names of the dead” in “crap” this government is a failed project.
HH became a failed project when he started get dementia from MAD COW DISEASE.
The question for HPCZ is how did they License this training school in the first place if the school did not meet the requirements they are talking about now like number of Lecturers? It is also absurd how HPCZ resorts to taking such reactive last minute drastic measures without giving the institution reasonable time to come up with a remedial plan? 794 students thrown into the cold just like that is callous to say the least. We are a country whose Doctor patient ratio is still unacceptably low and when a regulatory agency starts frustrating government efforts to improve Doctor patient ratio, a responsible government must intervene! In all the news of HPCZ closures, HPCZ has not demonstrated good sense giving institutions reasonable time frames within which to put things in order and doing…
Walasa!
In all the news of HPCZ closures, HPCZ has not demonstrated good sense giving institutions reasonable time frames within which to put things in order and doing a follow up assessment! This type of regulation is called Tom and Jerry approach and money and not patient safety seems to be the overriding motive here! Is it possible we are dealing with cliques within the medical profession where the Minister of Health is trying to frustrate the establishment of the new medical school to beef up staffing at UTH where the best Lecturers have left? Anything is possible here but it’s so unfair on the students! We get the impression doctors can’t reason logically on many management issues! Policing professionals will destroy the Health Sector in Zambia! There is a difference between regulation and…
Just asking,what happens to those ‘Drs’ who have already graduated and are practicing medicine?I suggest they go for reeducation at well established medical schools that have acceptable standards or back to CBU after the institution ups its game to meet the set standards.This is indeed a sad development.It pains me a lot to see that every time i read the news about my country,its always bad news be it Chinese related or whatever.We are very much screwed as a country.We certainly need to do something about this and very soon.
What is the role of the Higher Educational Authority in this matter?
If all relevant bodies to do with all areas of human endeavor in Zambia worked like the HPCZ, perhaps we would have some quality and progress. This exercise was also carried out in Lusaka and a few private institutions offering medicine courses, had some of them revoked. This is an aspect of a wider problem in Zambia. Who would want to be operated on by an unqualified or low caliber surgeon?
The TRIBALISM THIEF IN CHIEF will still remain UNELECTABLE.
What fool is voting down such progressive thinking?
No wonder they wanted the Vice Chancellor to resign
Zambian education needs this kind of treatment. People should be serious about educational qualifications. Where indeed is the ministry of higher education? Issue an authoritative statement
While I applaud the efforts of HPCZ in maintaining high health standards, I am not sure there is a single GRZ run institution (including UNZA school of medicine and UTH!) which meets the required standards. I am not an expert in health matters, but have the roles of HPCZ been mixed? Shouldn’t HPCZ stay with health practitioners and Health institutions only and let the Higher education Authority (or a similar institution) handle academic standards in Universities/Colleges?
@Just wondering, Kapasa Makasa has been up and running as a campus of CBU.
This is very sad news. However, we made the bed. It’ll get worse, given that medical assistants are now the ‘clinicians’ in Zambia. The management at CBU should serious consider looking at the option of engaging properly qualified doctors in the diaspora to rotate in providing the right level of education for students at the medical school.
Zambia’s biggest problem is that everybody can open university at any time so long they have money to buy way in. Doesn’t matter whether one has lecturers or not
@ caleb mudala that’s a nice profile picture you have kanshi how do you guys put these pic on your wordpress user profile..I’ve tried for years to do it but zero aye…
Sharon has summed everything and I suggest now everybody should shut up. Its HH who is the problem sha!!! Even when they were naming and officially opening the school of medicine without checking if it meets all the requirements, its HH that influenced the decision! Thats why the acronin for this authority start with the letter “H”. So stop talking now!!!!!!
By the way now that HH is to blame for all the wrong things, I would like to advise all the brothers who read this posts, that nga bakwikata ubuchende just tell the wife that “HH is the problem and I just followed” Problem solved. . . . .
Caution brothers mind how you will react when the wife says the same to you! Ya yalakosa bola uyu muntu?
Mujajati is in the wrong profession! He should have studied Journalism!
As old timers in the profession, a doctor who can’t reason with his brothers and sisters as the Hippocrates Oath provides for is not worthy of the noble calling! A doctor in authority who always wants the limelight of the press is egotistic, self-serving and a danger to the profession! Does Mujajati think his predecessors were $tupid to do things the way they did?
Mwebeni umwaiche uyu atekanye sana otherwise he will single-handedly destroy the little left! Doctors and all health workers need some respect. It’s a shame that the first one to take away that respect is also called a doctor – my foot!
Mujajati and Chilufya are using the same failed concept that was used to start CBU school of medicine to train specialist doctors in Solwezi, Mongu Mansa, Livingstone, Kasama and Chipata in facilities that failed to meet accreditation standards for training clinical officers. All the doctors including Mujajati are aware of this and cold scared to stand up to Hon Chilufya and stop this nonsense. They want to show off that they have produced over 400 specialists in 4 years without attention to quality and standards. They are training assasin specialists and Mujajati is a part of it. it’s an open book secret in the doctors community.
This Zambia is a failed project, & gets worse with every succesive Government coming to power.
There is no rule of law, Caderism, & cheerleading gets one the best jobs rather than merit, just look @ Kaizer, Chimpyiongo, Freedom Sikazwe, & chi Lusambo.
Basics like keeping your environment clean has become a huge challenge, with the, Zambian mindset always going in reverse -(Dununa). Just look at photos of Lusaka when the British were in control, clean, sane, & functioning.
Today a Mr Chitambala Simon Mwewa, has been trying to change the dirty mindset of littering & sh!tt1ng all over the Central business District.
My God, the abuse Mwewa got, especially from a female M P. who justified littering, expains why Zambia is a Cholera infested Pit Latrine today
Zambia WILL NEVER PROGRESS, & PROSPER, as long as we have leaders like that Female M.P, who even threatened to take garbage, & dump it on Mr Mwewa’s property.
Even the education standards have “gone to the hounds” to put it politely, hence these dull people pass exams with flying colours!
As they say in Zambia today, “The Lunatics are running the asylum” which easily translates to “The Cadres are running the Nation”
It’s sad our medicine students are being half cooked. Can school of Natural Resources also be assessed because there is allegedly serious shortage of lecturers too.
This is a terrible development. We are again stealing from our future. The regulatory institution and the University authority must be taken to task. They are both acting as if they are factions of the opposition. The regulatory authority must never take pride in closing such strategic institutions. The institution must have been put on enhanced monitoring to ensure compliance. Instead of closing the school, they should have reprimanded failing administrators and not negatively affect helpless students and parents/guardians. This action is more stressful to students than the failed administrators and is robbing the nation of a future.
From the records, less than 150 students passed from first to second year but to our surprise there are over 400 students in the 2nd year class…
How I wish all professions could have the same arrangements like the Law Association of Zambia or indeed this association. I am sure this can improve all professions. As it is now, the standards of our education is just too low. I just got a whatsapp message indicating that Zambia spends the least on education compared to other countries in Africa
THIS MUJAJATI IS SUSPECT!!!
Mujajati……and his cliques…will not make CBU fail to achieve its goals….Long live CBU Schoool of Medine…….
Whether Mujajati and his colleages likes or not….CBU is bigger than them!!!!
This is what happens when you have a useless Minister in charge, she thinks she’s running Tasintha. Very shameful
To lecture at University you have to have a Master’s Degree but your salary will just be around 15 pin. With the same qualification MoH will treat you as a consultant with a salary of more than 28pin. It makes sense to join MoH and not CBU. Sort out the disparity in emoluments or employ useless Indians or starving Zimbabweans
HPCZ is working in its jurisdictions anyone who thinks there are not performing in a right or abusing their office they free to take the rightly legal action how i wish anti corruption commission would perform like this
How To satisfy A Lady
What words… super, a brilliant idea