TMPC Increases Capacity For Medical Herbalists

THE Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) has served notice to all Traditional and Alternative Medicine practitioners to uphold quality medicinal practices.

The Council has appealed to herbalists to make conscious efforts and prioritize quality care, products, and practices.

The Council, in a release, advised the traditional medicine practitioners to ensure good health delivery system in the country or have their licenses revoked.

The TMPC is a regulatory agency of the Ministry of Health and the statutory regulatory agency that is mandated to promote, control and regulate traditional and alternative medicine practice in the country.

Read full statement below:

TMPC Increases Capacity For Medical Herbalists

...Serves Notice to Revoke Non-complying Licensees

THE Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) has counselled all Traditional and Alternative Medicine (TAM) practitioners to make conscious efforts and prioritize quality care, products, and practices.

The Council above all urges all practitioners to make quality in service delivery a yardstick and topmost priority, to consolidate the gains made in the alternative medicine industry, especially as the Ministry of Health (MoH), gradually integrates traditional and alternative medicine into an improved quality national health delivery system in the country.

Torgbuiga Yaka IV, FGCPharm, Registrar for TMPC gave the advice in an interaction with the media in Accra, on the sidelines of a Continuous Development Programme (CPD) for Medical Herbalists.

The CPD attracted over fifty (50) medical herbalists drawn across the country. Some notable topics discussed included Basic Research Methods at Clinical Level, Cultivation and preservation of Medicinal Plants with respect to Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, Basic Life support – First Aid, Metabolic syndrome, the need for referrals, sharing of research findings, among others.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

CPD is among strategies that TMPC uses among others to build the capacity of its regulatees to ensure quality practice, products and compliance to standards.

Aside CPD, TMPC undertakes routine inspection and enforcement exercises to ensure compliance and quality practice by all licensees.

The Registrar posited that the Council uses various strategies as inspections and enforcements, continuing professional development examinations, professional qualifying examinations, fora, training and retraining among others to promote quality practice and quality assurance among all licensees.

QUACKS

The Registrar reminded and cautioned all unlicensed and illegally operating practitioners and facilities to take steps to regularize their operations with the Council immediately or have themselves to blame, with severe sanctions and prosecutions.

The Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), is a regulatory agency of the Ministry of Health and the statutory regulatory agency that is mandated to promote, control and regulate of traditional and alternative medicine practice in the country.

According to the Registrar there are teams in Ashanti, Accra, Volta, Easter Regions and other parts in the country undertaking special inspection and enforcement exercises, complementing normal regular inspections all aimed to ensure strict compliance and adherence to standards by practitioners to promote quality care, practice and stamp out quackery.

The Council according to the Registrar has taken steps to deal severely with all unlicensed and illegally operating practitioners and facilities with severe sanctions and other multiple penalties for contravening the law, after an expiration of an ultimatum and a grace period.

REMAINDERS

Torgbuiga Yaka IV reminded all traditional and alternative medicine practitioners and premises that it is mandatory for all practitioners and premises to register, be licensed and accredited by the Council, failing that would attract severe sanctions as provided by the law.

REGULATION

The law that regulates the promotion, control and regulation of traditional and alternative medicine practice and profession in the country is known as the Traditional Medicine Practice Act, Act 575, 2000.

Act 575 more so is very explicit as espoused in clauses 9 and 17 that made it mandatory and required for all practitioners, to be licensed by TMPC, failure which is an offence that attracts severe sanctions.

MANDATE

Explaining further, the Registrar disclosed that TMPC’s mandate covers SPAs, Wellness Centres, traditional birth attendants, chemical sellers, herbalists, medical herbalists, healing /prayer camp operators, mallams, psychic spiritualists, raw material dealers, medical plant cultivators and herbal medicine manufacturers.

Torgbuiga Yaka IV also alerted the unsuspecting public to be wary of practitioners whose products and services they patronize, who must hold TMPC valid license and accreditation and which must be conspicuously displayed in the practice premises.

The TMPC Boss additionally assured the public that traditional medicine practitioners and the products are safe and efficacious, safe and reliable, are very noble and reliable professionals, but does neither include nor involve money doubling or magical powers that aimed to make people very rich overnight, stressing money doubling is a fraud and criminal, which must not be entertained.

The Registrar reaffirmed the Council’s determination to chase out all charlatans in the profession to instill sanity and confidence in the profession, especially as the Ministry of Health takes steps to integrate traditional and alternative medicine into an improved national healthcare delivery system for a healthy and a strong society.

RENEWALS

The Registrar reminded all practitioners to renew their licences in compliment to clauses 9 and 17, to facilitate unhindered and smooth practice.

COLLABORATION

The Registrar appealed and called on the public to effectively join hands with the Council to stamp-out quackery in the profession, saying regulation is and must be a shared responsibility between the statutory agencies and the public for the good of us all, noting, “TMPC alone cannot discharge its mandatory responsibilities effectively without the public’s co-operation, please don’t hesitate to report to the Council practitioners who may misconduct themselves for sanctioning, our doors are open and we are obliged to ensure and safeguard public health and safety at all times”, The Registrar concluded.

BACKGROUND

TMPC is a statutory regulatory agency of Ministry of Health that is mandated to promote, regulate and control quality traditional and alternative medicine practice in the country.

TMPC derives its mandate from the Traditional Medicine Practice Act 2000.

TMPC National Secretariat commenced its full regulatory operations in September, 2007, and has since not relented in instilling discipline and sanity in traditional medicine profession in the country, especially as the ministry is gradually integrating traditional and alternative medicine into an improved national healthcare delivery system in the country.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana