Kitwe High Court freezes HPCZ licensure exams
THE Health Professions Council of Zambia will not conduct licensure exams for graduate medics slated for next month because the Kitwe High Court has barred it from doing so until the case in which 14 unlicensed health personnel are challenging the credibility of their results is determined.
Judge Enias Chulu who granted an injunction to the 14 said, the medics will suffer irreparable injury if they continue to be subjected to licensure examinations whose credibility are in question on account of unexplained technical errors.
The graduates have sued the Health Professions Council of Zambia in the Kitwe High Court seeking an order to annul the licensure exams they sat for last year, for inconsistencies in the correctness of results.
Makunko Nsalange and 13 others want the Court to direct HPCZ to register them as Health Practitioners upon application and an order directing HPCZ to issue them with the requisite practicing certificate upon application.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the HPCZ’s conducting of licensure exams (LEX) is wrongful, illegal and contravenes the Health Professions Act of 2009 and Health Professions Amendment Act No. 26 of 2021.
They are also seeking an injunction restraining HPCZ from further conducting licensure exams.
Their lawyer, a Mr Chibeleka urged the Court to issue a restraining order to HPCZ from conducting LEX, on reasons that damages would not be an adequate remedy for them if the HPCZ was allowed to keep subjecting them to examinations that are not credible.
“This Court should concern itself with which of the two parties will be more inconvenienced if the injunction is not granted and that given the circumstances surrounding the case at hand, the balance of convenience tilts towards the Plaintiffs as they are the ones to be inconvenienced as they will be subjected to unlawful examinations,” Chebeleka argued.
In an affidavit in opposition sworn by HPCZ acting registrar Mutinta Moonga Musaila, the licensing body argued that the Court did not issue any order of injunction against it, stopping it from conducting its quality assurance mandate by way of licensure examinations.
She said HPCZ was at liberty to proceed with the scheduled examinations.
“Consideration of appeals relating to a candidates result is an administrative process requiring only the consideration of the grounds raised by the Appellant and verification of the results by counter checking the source examination documents,” Musaila argued.
She said if the LEX examinations are not administered, many health practitioners will be affected as they will not be registered and will lose out on the opportunity to find gainful employment as health practitioners.
During inter-parte hearing, Chibeleka submitted that not only does the HPCZ lack the powers to conduct examinations, the previous examinations it conducted, were riddled with various errors and mix ups.
Lawyer representing HPCZ, a Mrs Phiri submitted that where a party pleads for damages, it is an acknowledgment that damages will be sufficient to atone for any injury.
She said there was no need for an injunction to be granted.
She insisted that granting the injunction will disadvantage several health practitioners, as they will not be registered as health practitioners fit to practice.
Phiri submitted that there is no status quo to protect, warranting the grant of an injunction.
In reply, Chibeleka said HPCZ was causing injury to the 14 as some of them have now been banned to sit for exams for three years.
“The examinations conducted by the defendant are riddled with errors and problems and to expose the Plaintiffs to further examinations whose results are questionable will be to expose them to irreparable injury,” said Chibeleka.
Ruling on the application for an injunction, judge Chulu said the complaints by the medics are “quite serious”.
“I can hardly imagine the anguish of the plaintiffs whose results one day shows that he or she passed both the practical and the theory examinations, only to have the results reversed next day to show that the plaintiffs failed both examinations,”he said.
“How does one quantify that anguish in monetary terms? From where I stand it is not possible to quantify that in monetary terms.”
Judge Chulu said the case was fit for him to exercise his discretion and grant the 14 an injunction.
“I therefore grant the plaintiffs an interlocutory injunction restraining the HPCZ, their servants or agents from conducting licensure examinations until full determination of this matter. I make no order as to cost. Leave to appeal is granted,” ruled judge Chulu.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba September 6, 2024.
Kitwe High Court freezes HPCZ licensure exams
