Sundaymail Editor
Standrick Chagadama
MORE than 10 beauty and wellness salons that were administering injectable and intravenous beauty enhancements have been shut down over lack of requisite competencies in offering such services.
A crackdown by the Health Professions Authority (HPA) that led to this move follows the proliferation of salons offering injectable and intravenous beauty enhancements, in contravention of Section 126 of the Health Professions Act.
HPA acting secretary Mrs Clotilda Chimbwanda told The Sunday Mail that the salons were “mushrooming everywhere”.
“In accordance with Section 126 of the Health Professions Act, the facility is immediately closed and the people providing the service are referred to the police for action accordingly for breaking the law.
“The authority has closed over 10 salons offering these services.
“The authority closes the section carrying out the illegal activity,” she said.
Mrs Chimbwanda said non-medical personnel are prohibited from performing any act that should otherwise be done by a registered professional.
“The authority carries out routine inspections of health facilities to ensure minimum standards are upheld,” she added.
“In the execution of this duty, the inspectors are on the lookout for beauty parlours offering services that should only be done by registered health professionals.
“The specific services are immediately shut down through the police.
“Registered health professionals have also been reporting these service providers to the authority after patients visit them with complications when procedures have gone wrong.”
HPA, she said, only registers facilities that are run by health professionals to offer the services.
“The health professionals should be registered by the appropriate health professions council.
“Therefore, any other beauty treatments within their scope of practice that can be performed by non-medical professionals can continue.
“The problem comes when they offer services that are supposed to be carried out by a medical professional.”
Only trained health professionals, she said, should administer drips or injectables to avoid putting people’s lives at risk.
“Furthermore, injections and infusions are given in a controlled environment in terms of emergency drugs and equipment being in place in the case of an adverse effect,” said Mrs Chimbwanda.
“Should someone react to an injectable, the non-medical personnel will not know what to do as this is outside their scope of practice. Anything that goes into the human body, in terms of medicines, must be approved and licensed by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.”
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter