462 fake nurses flee Bugando Hospital, Mwanza

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By The Citizen's Reporters

The Pharmacy Board of Tanzania has caught 462 nurses working in the Lake Zone’s major health facilities with fake certificates.

The board’s crackdown aimed at nabbing people who illegally run medical and pharmacy businesses, also impounded 76 fake certificates, according to the board’s public announcement to the press yesterday.

The exercise’s coordinator from the board, Richard Selumbe, told The Citizen that during the exercise they carried out inspections on 1,206 assistant nurses serving at Bugando Hospital, the Lake Zone’s biggest referral centre, where they found only 743 nurses with genuine certificates. The remaining 386 who were suspected to have fake certificates fled their work stations fearing the board’s test.

“We are holding 76 fake certificates owned by those who were inspected, but we couldn’t get 386 others since their owners fled. The total number of owners of the fake certificates reached 462,” noted Serumbe.

He said most of the fake certificates show the nurses studied at the African Inland Church’s medical school, whose location Serumbe said was still undisclosed.

“Its location is said to be in Mwanza, but conflicting reports say it is in Magu while others claim the college is in Shinyanga,” noted Serumbe.

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