Medical, Dental Council inducts 454 practitioners
The Medical and Dental Council (MDC) has inducted 454 medical and dental graduates from various institutions to be recognised as professionals in their practice.
The inductees are from the University of Ghana Medical School, the University of Ghana Dental School, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Medical Sciences (SMS), the University of Cape Coast SMS and the Family Health University College.
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The others are the University of Health and Allied Sciences SMS, the University for Development Studies School of Medicine and Health Sciences and foreign -trained doctors who passed the council’s registration examination.
Addressing the inductees at a ceremony in Accra last Saturday, the Registrar of the MDC, Dr Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, noted that they had a greater responsibility to take care of their patients, particularly the responsibility to decide between life and death.
He urged the newly qualified doctors to be professional in their practice in order to maintain the confidence and trust reposed in them by society.
He said the MDC would continue to promote and protect public health, safety and well-being and also prescribe and enforce professional standards and conduct for medical and dental practitioners.
Build capacity
The Chairman of the council, Professor Paul Nyame, delivering his speech, urged the inductees to avoid the desire and thirst for glory, adding that keeping their patients’ information confidential was crucial to their practice.
He further advised them to distance themselves from serious crimes such as human trafficking and adoption trading.
“Beware of the pleasures of love with patients. It is advisable to have a chaperon or nurse with you whenever you examine a female patient. I mention these sad weaknesses and frailties of mankind, from the global perspective and experience of the past few years, in the face of the oath you have sworn today. Society expects much from you; it expects you to be people of integrity. You have no moral right to fail them,” he advised the inductees.
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Prof. Nyame noted that the MDC was aware of the proliferation of unqualified medical and dental practitioners in Ghana, saying it was investigating such matters.
“The council's investigative arm is aggressively on the trail of these persons. However, it is also the duty of the council to ensure that students entering our medical and dental schools get adequate exposure to a high standard of training in all the relevant disciplines. Students being offered admission to train in medicine and dentistry must be worth the 8As on the certificates they presented,” he noted.
Meanwhile, he said, the MDC was working with stakeholders, particularly the government and its relevant agencies, to find an appropriate strategy to increase the number of doctors and dentists trained and effectively limit the need to send students abroad.
Exhibit professionalism
In a speech read on his behalf by a Deputy Minister of Health, Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the inductees would augment the over 10,000 doctors and dentists already serving in various parts of the country.
He expressed concern about the recent negative media reportage about doctors and urged the inductees to show a high standard of professionalism during their practice.
He said the government was doing its best to ensure that there was easy access to quality healthcare services across the country, citing the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the introduction of the Agenda 111 projects as part of those efforts.