The Health Professions Council of Zambia has with immediate effect discontinued training in Environmental Health and Clinical Medicine at Conquerous Institute-The Institute of Health Sciences in Solwezi, North-western Province.
HPCZ Registrar and Chief Executive Bwembya Bwalya said this was upon discovering that the Institution was offering the two programs illegally.
Mr Bwalya said HPCZ received an alert that Conquerous Institute had enrolled students in Environmental Health and Clinical Medicine without Approval Certificates from the regulatory body.
He said an advert was also placed on social media inviting students to apply for enrolment in the same programmes.
Mr Bwalya said at the time of the HPCZ inspection, students were already out for internship while the Institution continued selling application forms to more prospective students in the abovementioned programmes for the January 2020 intake.
He said the Council has since directed that the students be recalled from internship and all payments made for tuition or enrolment be refunded.
Mr Bwalya has further warned Internship Sites against admitting students from Conquerous Institute in the cited illegal programmes.
He explained that apart from illegally offering medical sciences, some of the irregularities discovered at the Institution were enrolment of students without Grade Twelve Certificates, the Institution did not have proper infrastructure for training health programmes, and had no running water, a situation that could pose health risks for the students and staff.
Mr Bwalya said the discontinuing of the training in Environmental Health and Clinical Medicine at Conquerous Institute is in accordance with Section 32 of the Health Professions Act No. 24 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia.
He urged Zambians to be alert by checking with the Health Professions Council of Zambia that a Training Institution offering Health Programmes has a valid Approval Certificate, before going ahead to enroll.
Can you please investigate the corruption that has become the norm in Govt run nursing schools. Some now demand as much as K4,000 as gratification from applicants in order to be admitted. Just secretly interview the students you’ll get shocking revelations. It’s almost impossible to get a place unless you oil them
THAT IS NOT WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF HPCZ BUT GNC/GENERAL NURSING COUNCIL OF ZAMBIA.
Can you also improve with the registration process and make your website simple and clear.
Zambians are so desperate they are more than willing to train anywhere even under tree.
Someone at that institute please explain the meaning of the word “CONQUEROUS”. I would have closed them down purely on that mistake.
I would have thought an institute needed to satisfy certain conditions before being allowed to operate. For example, as cited above, it is stated that;
” The Institution did not have proper infrastructure for training health programmes, and had no running water” Should this not have been verified before? Or are institutions in Zambia allowed to commence their operations and then inspected later?