The Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ) is saddened that various universities and colleges in the country have continued to enroll students without full grade 12 certificates.
HPCZ Register Professor Faston Goma said the council has also noted with concern that a number of health practitioners have continued to operate in different health facilities with fake annual licenses.
Prof Goma who described such practices as unacceptable, stated that this is hindering the progress of delivering quality health care services to people.
Prof Goma who is also HPCZ Chief Executive Officer said this today during a media briefing.
He noted that as a regulator, HPCZ will do everything possible to ensure that the situation is corrected.
Prof Goma noted that the council has since urged all universities and colleges to discontinue training students without a full grade 12 certificate.
He said applicants should also desist from enrolling if they do not have the qualification.
Prof Goma stated that letters have been written to the concerned institutions and hopes that they will all compile without fail.
He said sanctions will be effected to those institutions that will not comply.
“As a regulatory body we are saddened that colleges and universities have continued to enroll students without full grade 12 certificates. And we have also noted that the same students are a problem because they have also continued to enroll when they know they do not have the qualifications. We have since written to these institutions to discontinue such students until they have correct results,” said Prof Goma.
Prof Goma, however, noted that the second professional licentiate examinations will be conducted from the 18th of September to 6th October 2023.
He said that registration of candidates is ongoing and that the deadline for submitting applications is 18th August 2023.
“ We encourage all eligible candidates to apply for the September examination considering that the next year the examination will be conducted in February 2024. The examinations are open to fresh graduates and to those who did not perform well during the 2023 February examinations, ”Prof Goma stated.
Prof Goma also noted that there is a critical shortage of healthcare staff in various public institutions and that the situation presents challenges in the accessibility of quality healthcare services for all.
He said government is working towards ensuring that more health personnel will be deployed to ease the burden in the affected health facilities.
“During our HPCZ routine inspections, we discovered that some health facilities especially in the rural areas operate with only one trained health practitioner while others do not have available technical staff for their scope of services. Government is working to address this challenge in the distribution of human resources in the facilities,” said Prof Goma.
