Month-end deadline for Traditional Medical Practitioners’ registration

THE Traditional Medical Practitioners’ Council (TMPC) has given all unregistered practitioners and new applicants up to the end of this month to pay their registration and practicing licence fees. Failure to comply will attract a fine of US$400 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both fine and imprisonment. TMPC is the regulatory body for traditional medical practitioners in the country and derives its mandate from the Traditional Medical Practitioners Act Chapter 27:14 of 1996, which is administered by the Minister of Health and Child Care. TMPC is supposed to achieve greater confidence and satisfaction from patients in the health delivery service, provide standardised, safe, efficacious health care services and products at affordable rates, and register and license traditional medical activities in Zimbabwe. The body also trains traditional medical practitioners in various fields of health and helps establish Traditional Medical Hospitals in Zimbabwe. It also preserves culturally based traditional methods of healing. In a statement, TMPC acting registrar, Mr Givemore Kanda said all unregistered traditional medical practitioners are required to visit their respective provincial offices and regularise themselves failure of which sanctions will be imposed in line with standing statutes. “The council kindly informs practitioners that it is a legal requirement to register as a traditional medical practitioner in terms of the Traditional Medical Practitioners. Part VI Section 31 of the Act stipulates that a person who practices or carries the business of a traditional medical practitioner without being registered is liable to a fine not exceeding US$400 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment,” he said. porn camilla araujo Mr Kanda said every traditional practitioner is supposed to comply with the legal requirement by paying for their practicing licence by end of March. According to TMPC, its members include faith healers, herbalists, prophets, Eastern and Western herbal medicine distributors, herbal medicine practitioners, faith healing churches, traditional birth attendants, spirit mediums, African traditional healers, traditional herbal medicine ingredient sellers and traditional medicine organisations and associations.– The Chronicle