HPCZ suspends medical courses at CBU
By Staff Reporter
HPCZ chief executive officer Dr Aaron Mujajati has announced the withdrawal of recognition and approval of programmes at Copperbelt University School of Medicine with immediate effect.
In a statement issued today Dr Mujajati said HPCZ has withdrawn recognition and approval of bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBCHB) and the bachelor of dental surgery after a recent compliance monitoring inspection revealed gross over-enrollment of students, an inadequate number of lecturers, engaging unregistered and unlicensed lectures that are health practioners and failure to index students.
Full statement below
In the bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery programmes the university over-enrolled by 494 students bringing the total number pursuing this programme to 794.the lecturer-student ratios therefore ,exceed the 1 to 50 for theory for students in clinical years 3 to 5 and the practical of 1 to 10 for students in both the foundation and clinical years.additionally,all the 794 students are not indexed with HPCZ ,another major finding is the lack of lectures in several courses including psychology,histology,pathology and body dysfunction.
The above situation is indicative of the fact that HPCZ cannot be assured of the safety of the public once exposed to the services of graduates in the bachelor of medicine and surgery and it is clear to the CBU currently has no capacity to offer this programme, thus the decision to withdraw the certificate of approval and subsequent closure of the programme.
With regard to the bachelor of dental surgery programme, it is a requirement that the course coordinator and all lectures that are health practitioners are duly registered with HPCZ or General Nursing Council GNC,as well as have valid practicing licenses before a training programme may be approved by the Council, it is also a requirement that all lectures with a background in health fields be registered with HPCZ or GNC as per their qualification HPCZ inspectors however discovered the following major anomalies in the bachelor of dental surgery programme:
-the Copperbelt university school of medicine engaged an unregistered course coordinator who has been practicing without a valid license since January 2017
-Two other lectures are not registered with HPCZ
-All 198 students under the programme are not indexed
The programme cannot be allowed to continue with the mentioned irregularities.consequesntly, the, the certificate of approval stands withdraw and the programme closed.
Students and other stakeholders must note that prior to the closure of the programme at the CBU school of medicine, the HPCZ through its training department conducted an initial inspection in April this year ,which exposed various shortcomings among them failure to meet some requirement under institutional setting ,faculty ,educational resource and quality improvement. The university was instructed to put in place remedial measures by 30th august 2018 and when inspectors were made to ensure smooth running of the institution still did not meet set standard in various areas identified in this statement.
Equally important to stress is that, out of the a total number 51 lectures teaching the MBCHB programme, only one has evidence of being registered with HPCZ and on that account the council cannot ascertain the qualifications and competences of the entire teaching faculty at the school of medicine
The health professions council of Zambia has since advised Copperbelt university that the two programmes withdraw will only be reinstated after all recommendations have been addressed at which point the university can put in a fresh application to the council for a reassessment .meanwhile no academic activities shall be conducted in the cited programmes until CBU demonstrates capacity to purchase safe health practitioners HPCZ will not tolerate schools that are familiar with the rules to deliberately continue inconveniencing students and parents
Signed by
Dr Aaron Mujajati
Chief Executive Officer/Registrar
