Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1337052,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1337052/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Irene Mayaka",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. This is a very important Bill for this country. We should ventilate and debate it as much as possible. As I was saying, we had instances – and this has been mentioned before – where quacks were operating and practicing in professions where, ideally, one must go to school and obtain the proper qualifications before practicing. The other day, we had a quack in the surgeon in a medical environment. When we begin to allow some of these amendments to come through, we set a very dangerous precedence for this country. We will have situations where people with diplomas say that they want to go to court to start representing clients. Therefore, I do not want us to encourage this. I want to encourage the Chair and the Departmental Committee on Health to take positively the amendments we are seeking to bring to the House regarding what we feel should be regulated in this Bill. I also want to speak about Clause 41(1)(b), which proposes removing the schedule of medicines and reverting to globally acceptable scheduling as indicated in the standards in Cap. 244. I say this because if you go to some countries like South Africa, Dubai and the United Kingdom and request medication over the counter, you will not be given the drug unless you have a proper prescription. They are very strict about that. As a country, we should strive to move in that direction because by doing so, we will not only safeguard the public, but we will also ensure that the highest measurements of standards of medicine and prescription of the same are attained in our country. Because there is too much interest, I will stop there so that I allow others to debate. As I said earlier, I urge the Committee to be very positive in its reception of the amendments we will bring to the Floor of the House. I submit."
}