A day's sensitization workshop for over 150 traditional medicine practitioners and herbalists has ended in Accra, with a call on participants to ensure utmost sanity in the traditional medicine practice system.

The workshop, organised jointly by the Ministry of Health and the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), was aimed at sensitizing herbalists on the registration and proper licensing system for herbal practitioners.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Lepowura Alhaji M.N.D. Jawula, who opened the workshop, emphasised that, government still recognises the invaluable contributions traditional medicine played in providing health-care needs of the Ghanaian population.

These, he said, include the immense contributions of traditional birth attendants in rural areas of the country.

He added that because of the invaluable services that traditional medicine provides, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 80 per cent of the rural populations in developing countries depend on traditional medicine for their health-care needs.

According to him, government in taking cognisance of all these, has embarked upon a number of initiatives to regularise the operations of the practitioners.

“As such, government interventions would, thus, focus on building public confidence in your good selves and services, so as to achieve acceptable professional standards, comparable with our colleagues in India, China and other Asian countries,” he reiterated.

He announced that acceptable traditional medicine practices and products would be integrated into the mainstream health-care delivery system.

As a move to make this dream a reality, he said regulatory mechanisms and structures were being established.

These include the registration of practitioners and licensing of their practice premises, which would begin as soon as practicable.

He therefore, urged the practitioners to engage in series of discussions among themselves to make the Registration and Licensing System (R/LS) possible.

The Registrar of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), Pharm. F.K. Hunua Hlortsi-Akakpo, in his contribution said, “The ultimate goal of TMPC is to empower herbal practitioners to provide certified quality service through the use of safe, quality and effective traditional medicines.”

He noted that to achieve this, registered practitioners would be required to regularly participate in education and training programmes to be endorsed by the TMPC Secretariat.

He therefore, urged the practitioners to hold themselves up in readiness for customised policies, regulations and programmes.

The Registrar later confirmed to Health Matters that the council would conduct series of follow-ups to ensure the success of the programme.

Daily Guide