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The Inspectorate Department of Medical Council of Zambia is the inspectorate and regulator of all healthcare facilities (Consulting Rooms)
and training institutions offering or intends to offer training in the health professions. Inspectorate Department’s primary focus is on:
- Undertaking performance assessments of public and private healthcare and health training institutions in order to ensure compliance to minimum set standards;
- Developing and disseminating minimum set standards and inspection guideline tools for healthcare facilities and health training institutions;
- Reviewing tools and instrument for carrying out inspections of healthcare facilities and health training institutions;
- Maintaining records of all registered and closed healthcare facilities and health training institutions;
- Monitoring the review of curricula in health training institutions;
- Making a significant contribution to improve the safety and quality of health delivery services in the Country;
- Strengthening the voice of patients and the public in the way health delivery services are reviewed.
ROLE OF THE INSPECTIONS DEPARTMENT:
Inspectorate Department’s core role is to review, assess, and inspect training institutions offering training in health professions in the Country to provide quality and quality assurance for patients, the public and healthcare providers that services are safe and of good quality.
Services are reviewed against the range of published inspection guideline tool, checklist and rules as part of this work .Inspectorate Department will seek to identify and support improvements in services and the actions required achieving this. The Inspectorate Department is the regulator of healthcare facilities and health training institutions, and is responsible for monitoring approved training programmes provided by higher health training institutions in Zambia.
Inspectorate Department carries out its functions on behalf of Medical Council of Zambia. Its functions and responsibilities are drawn from the Medical and Allied Professions Act, Chapter 297 of 1977 of the Laws of Zambia. Inspectorate Department works closely with other inspectorates in carrying out cross sector reviews in health training institutions and in developing more proportionate and coordinated approaches to the review and regulation of healthcare services in Zambia.
Medical Council of Zambia inspectors are authorized to enter and inspect healthcare facility and health training institution establishments at any reasonable time. At any other time throughout the year visits is made to the healthcare facilities and health training institutions to investigate complaints and in response to changes in the establishment. Inspection enables the Medical Council of Zambia to satisfy itself that continued registration is justified and ensure compliance with Medical and Allied Professions Act, Chapter 297 of the Laws of Zambia whilst taking into account the minimum set standards. The minimum set standards are very detailed,
some are technical in nature, and the inspectorate team does not look depth at all aspects of these standards on each visit.
The inspectorate department is required to make reports on registered healthcare facilities and health training institutions available to the Council as the Medical and Allied Professions Act, Cap.297 provides for.
Primarily, the health facility standards are designed to deliver the improved level of care and treatment the people of Zambia have a right to reasonably expect and hence provide a base upon which health facilities can build and achieve the new and more challenging expectations for patient care set out in the Millennium Development Goals of Government’s15 year strategy.
All healthcare facilities in Zambia are required to consider the set standards when providing healthcare and commissioning healthcare services, irrespective of the setting.
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