Two nurses arrested

MASERU – TWO nurses have been arrested for running illegal clinics in Maseru.

They are Mpho Maitin whose Molopi Health Clinic is located at Lepoqong taxi station and Joalane Khoarai who owns a clinic in the same area.
The police say they found expired medicines at Molopi Health Clinic.

Some of the medicines were supposed to have been used in 2012, 2015 and 2016 but she was still keeping them in the clinic.
The two women appeared before the Maseru magistrate’s court on Tuesday last week. They will return to court next Tuesday.
Maitin paid a bail M600 while Khoarai paid M500.

The police nabbed the two nurses after receiving tip-offs on January 25.
It is not clear whether Maitin prescribed and sold these medicines to her patients.

Maitin is a nurse clinician, a qualification that gives her authority to prescribe certain medicines and drugs without a doctor’s supervision.
Unlike a general nurse, Maitin works like a doctor although she has to refer her patients to a doctor for complicated illnesses.
As for Khoarai, she provides midwifery services but for some years she has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Health over her licence.
The police say they contravened the Nurses and Midwife Act of 1998.

Police spokesman Superintendent Clifford Molefe said it is a serious offence to prescribe expired medicine.
“It is everyone’s right to demand to see a legal permit from a business providing him with services before or after the service,” Molefe said.
“This act shows that there are people outside there who can give or prescribe poison to others in order to get money,” he said.
“The arrest of these two women was done successfully by the Pitso Ground Police in Maseru.”

Senate Sekotlo