Medical practitioners heed MCZ warning

DOCTORS and other health practitioners who have not renewed their 2009 practising certificates countrywide have started flocking to the Medical Council of Zambia (MCZ) for the renewal of their practising licences.

MCZ spokesperson Larry Njungu said in an interview yesterday that the health practitioners had started flocking to the secretariat to normalise their membership with the professional body.

A fortnight ago MCZ registrar, Mary Zulu revealed that more than 5,800 medical doctors and other health practitioners countrywide had not renewed their 2009 practising certificates by March 31, 2009. Dr Zulu said only 34 per cent of the registered members had paid up and she warned that the MCZ would have no option but deregister all the defaulting doctors and other health practitioners.

Following this threat, Mr Njungu said, the practitioners had started paying up to the council to avoid being penalised.

“I can assure you that the response has been overwhelming and everyday we have members coming to register following the threat to de-register them,” he said.

As at March 31 2009, only 2,948 practitioners out of 8,770 in the MCZ register had renewed their certificates. Out of 1,600 medical doctors in the country, only 610 had renewed the membership with the council while out of the 2,560 clinical officers only 800 had done so. Of the more than 1,100 environmental health technicians only 248 had renewed their certificates and of 274 physiotherapy technologists only 86 had renewed their practising papers by March 31, 2009. Mr Njungu could, however, not give figures in terms of the actual practitioners who had so far turned up for the renewal saying he could only do so after the April 30 for the monthly entries.

“Our data base is run in such a way that we can only give the actual update after month end. The update is done monthly,” he said.

The Medical and Allied Professions Act Chapter 297 of the Laws of Zambia does not allow professionals in the sector to practice without due certificates or licences.