Traditional Medicine Practice Council has shut down about 30 facilities across the Ashanti Region for a range of regulatory breaches, including operating without valid licences and engaging unqualified practitioners to run treatment centres on their behalf.
Addressing the media at a press briefing, the Council disclosed that the affected facilities will face further sanctions, including possible legal action, as it moves to tighten enforcement of practice standards within the traditional medicine sector.
Detailing the nature of the violations uncovered during its enforcement exercise, the Council explained that inspectors found a consistent pattern of non-compliance across the facilities eventually shut down, ranging from absent practitioners to undisplayed licences.
“About roughly 30 facilities, we’ve closed down about 30 facilities, and these facilities are facilities where they’ve failed to be compliant with regulation. You visit those facilities and realise that the practitioner is not on premise, the practitioner has failed to display the licence.”
Traditional Medicine Practice Council
The Council noted that in several cases, licensed practitioners had gone on to establish multiple branch facilities across the region, but rather than personally overseeing operations at each site, had instead contracted unqualified individuals to run these additional locations in their absence.
According to the Council, this practice of expanding into unsupervised branch facilities staffed by unqualified personnel emerged as one of the more serious concerns driving round of closures.
Facilities identified under this pattern were found to be operating with individuals who lacked the necessary qualifications or authorisation to administer traditional medicine treatments to patients, raising direct concerns about patient safety and the quality of care being delivered at these locations.
Some Facilities Seek Appeal, Others Remain Non-Compliant
The Council disclosed that its response to the closures has varied depending on how affected facility operators have engaged with the regulatory process since being shut down. It noted that a majority of the closed facilities have already appealed to the Council, prompting an ongoing review of appropriate sanctions for these cases.
“Most of them have actually appealed to the Council, and the Council is looking at initiating sanctions. But for those that we’ve closed that have not appealed to the Council, to ensure they take the necessary steps to rectify the problem that we’ve identified.”
Traditional Medicine Practice Council
This distinction suggests the Council is prepared to differentiate its response based on whether facility operators demonstrate a willingness to engage with the regulatory process and correct identified violations, rather than applying a uniform punitive approach across all 30 closures.
For facilities that have not sought an appeal or shown steps toward compliance, the Council signalled that it is prepared to escalate its response considerably, moving beyond administrative sanctions toward formal criminal proceedings against operators found to be practising without proper authorisation.
“Going forward, we are going to engage the legal team to ensure we initiate criminal proceedings against these practitioners who are operating without the necessary licence.”
Traditional Medicine Practice Council
This threat of criminal prosecution marks a notable escalation in the Council’s regulatory posture, indicating that unlicensed or non-compliant practice within the traditional medicine sector could soon carry legal consequences beyond simple facility closure.
Broader Push for Regulatory Compliance
The closures in the Ashanti Region reflect a wider regulatory effort by the Traditional Medicine Practice Council to enforce compliance standards across a sector that has, at various points, faced criticism over inconsistent oversight and uneven application of licensing requirements.
By publicly disclosing the scale of the closures and outlining a clear pathway toward potential criminal action, the Council appears intent on signalling a firmer stance on enforcement going forward, rather than allowing violations to persist unchecked
With the majority of closed facilities now in the appeals process, attention turns to how the Council will determine appropriate sanctions for those seeking to resolve their compliance issues, as well as how quickly legal proceedings might be initiated against facilities that have failed to respond to the closure notices altogether.
The outcome of this enforcement drive is likely to be closely watched by traditional medicine practitioners across the country, particularly as the Council signals its readiness to pursue criminal charges against operators found practising outside the bounds of their licences.
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