WAAPA laments government's neglect of trained physician assistants
The West African Association of Physician Associates (WAAPA) has lamented the government's unemployment of Physician Assistants (PA) for the past four years.
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It described the government's action as discrimination towards their profession as the government had over the years employed persons in other cadres of the health profession.
The President of WAAPA, Dr Anthony Arkoh, who expressed the concern, explained that there are currently more than 3,000 PAs left redundant without employment, which is demoralising the interest of young professionals.
"There is discrimination with employment.
The ministry is employing doctors, nurses and midwives.
We have heard that our employments have been sabotaged.
“There are over 3,000 who have not been employed and these are medical practitioners and they are paying retention fees every year to the council and the government," he said.
Dr Arkoh, who doubles as the President of the Graduate Physician Assistants of Ghana, was speaking at the Radford University College's Physician Assistant Student Association of Ghana (PASAG) Week Celebration launch last Wednesday in Accra.
De-accreditation
The WAAPA president also lamented the de-accreditation of physician assistant programmes in some universities in the country.
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He said for instance, the Ghana Medical and Dental Council’s move to stop its programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was a form of targeting the profession.
Students
He alleged that many universities in Ghana have declined interest in mounting master’s degree programmes in medicine and clinical doctorate programmes.
Albeit, he said governments and schools outside the country have accepted their designed curriculum following their petition to train students as physician assistants.
Despite this demotivation, Dr Arkoh urged the students to embrace their profession with pride as it was a well-sought-after craft globally.
He hinted that the association was synchronising many things including an internationally recognised curriculum to make their certificates globally recognised.
Innovative Programmes
The President of the Radford University College, Dr Martin Luther Obeng said the school would roll out an innovative programme to send students in their third year to affiliated universities abroad.
He explained that the school had started the process of entering into partnerships with universities such the Oxford University in the United Kingdom for students who enrolled on the innovative "Two-Plus-One" programme to continue their studies abroad and prepare for the already existing international market.
He noted that the programme would address unemployment issues faced by students who are training as health professionals.
It would also open the school to both Ghanaian and international students to interact and learn from each other to better position themselves in the international market.