The Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) closed down three herbal medicine shops in Cape Coast for operating with expired licences.
The shops are Pennah Herbal Shop, Dank Natural Healthcare and God is Able Herbal Centre.
The exercise was part of a nationwide effort to enforce regulatory standards in the sector.
It formed part of the Council’s efforts to ensure that herbal medicine practitioners and facilities comply with licensing requirements and protect consumers from potential health risks.
The, Compliance, Enforcement and Inspection Officer of the TMPC, Nicholas Annan, said some of the affected facilities had operated with expired licences for three to four years without renewing them.
Speaking to the media during an inspection of herbal medicine facilities in Cape Coast, he said the exercise was intended to establish whether operators have valid licences and were complying with the regulatory requirements governing their activities.
“We have identified facilities whose licences expired three and four years ago.
Although they were previously licensed, they have failed to renew their licences, and we have therefore closed them down,” he said.
Mr Annan added that the affected operators have been directed to report to the Council’s office to renew their licences before they could resume operations.
He added that the Council would conduct follow-up inspections to ensure that the operators have regularised their businesses before the facilities were reopened.
He stressed that the enforcement exercise was not intended to frustrate practitioners but to ensure that the traditional medicine industry operated within the required standards.
“The basic thing we are looking at is public health and safety.
We want to ensure that everybody in the traditional medicine sector is properly regulated, their licences are up to date, and they are doing the right thing,” he said.
Mr Annan said the Council would sustain its monitoring and inspection activities to prevent operators from continuing to work with expired licences.
He explained that the enforcement exercise was not a one-off operation, as officers have been deployed to conduct regular inspections and ensure continued compliance with the regulations.
He said although the current compliance team was operating in Cape Coast, similar enforcement activities were being carried out in other regions.