Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board (LSTMB), has given notice that it will enforce the directives of the National Council on Health (NCH) mandating all practitioners of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in every part of the country to register their operations or face the full wrath of the law.
Speaking on the resolutions reached during the 62nd meeting of Traditional Medicine Practitioners held in 2021at Asaba, Delta State, the Registrar of LSTMB, Mr. Olorunkemi Kadiku, said the Board is giving unregistered practitioners in the State the opportunity to perfect their registration before the end of March 2022.
According to him, all Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners including product manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers are required to regularise their practice as well as register their premises with the Traditional Medicine Board, or risk their premises being sealed.
“Any practitioner that fails to comply with this directive to register with LSTMB would be treated as a defaulter and such premises sealed, in addition to the confiscation of products, in line with the Council’s decisions”, he explained.
Kadiku, who is also a member of the State’s Primary Health Care Board, disclosed that the Agency has equally complied with other directives of the National Council mandating all Traditional Medicine Boards to establish notable professional units or sections for coordination, regulation and control of CAM practice and products.
The Units, according to the Registrar, include Traditional Medicine Practice, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practice, Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practice, Research Development, Herbal Complementary Medical Products and Commercialisation
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He said: “The Board has equally gone ahead to implement the Council’s resolution by registering and licensing Milyash Alternative Specialist Clinic at Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island, as the first Complementary and Alternative Medicine Clinic in the State. The LSTMB is also in the process of registering other facilities that have applied to it for registration”.
Recall that LSTMB was established by the State Government in 1980 to oversee the development, promotion, monitoring, regulation and integration of traditional medicine practice in the healthcare system of Lagos State.
