Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
GOVERNMENT is in the process of crafting training programmes at the country’s Polytechnic colleges to equip traditional healers with basic medical skills and broaden their knowledge base.
Traditional health practitioners will be trained to detect blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse rate and body temperature, among other skills.
This came out when the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro met members of the Traditional Medical Practitioners’ Council in Harare this Tuesday.
“All traditional healers must be registered, this will help government follow up on their practice and they also need to record whatever they do so that as the ministry we will know that the patient is not in danger. They also need to have BP checking and temperature gadgets which will be registered and well monitored by government. Everyone who claims to be treating people needs to be registered. We need them to be ethical, he said.
The traditional healers who attended the meeting commended government for the progressive move.
“We welcome government’s move because this is really something we need as an association as this will not only help us but will also assist our patients so that they recover faster,” said a traditional healer.
“Sometimes the symptoms present the same so it is very important for us to have for example the BP checking gadgets and the knowledge to interpret the readings so that we will know exactly what we are dealing with at church,” noted another
The Traditional Medical Practitioners Council was established by an Act of Parliament to regulate the operations of traditional healers and safeguard the lives of citizens.
