The newly inducted doctors swearing the Hippocratic Oath during the 16th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Stop referring patients to private clinics — Agyeman-Manu

Rebecca Quaicoe Duho Health Dec - 12 - 2019 , 06:54

The Minister of Health (MoH), Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has asked doctors in public hospitals to desist from referring patients to private clinics for the doctors’ own financial gains.

He alleged that some doctors were in the habit of referring patients to private clinics, only for those doctors to meet the patients later at those facilities for consultation, saying: “This practice must stop. You must live by your Hippocratic Oath and eschew unethical practices.”

This was contained in a speech read on behalf of the minister by one of his deputies, Mr Alexander Kwodwo Kom Abban, at the 16th Annual General and Scientific Meeting (AGSM) of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra yesterday.

It was on the theme: “Disability: Health and socio-economic impact”.

The occasion was also used to induct 167 new members and 47 fellows into the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Advice

Mr Agyeman-Manu also called on doctors not to leave the country after they had been trained with taxpayers’ money and admonished them to serve the country with diligence and dedication.

“We expect that you will contribute your quota to healthcare delivery in Ghana by remaining in the country. You have been provided with skills in this environment. I entreat you to accept posting to the rural areas of this country where your services are needed the most,” he added.

The minister commended the college for the training of various specialties and appealed to the management to include Psychiatry, Oncology and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) in the programme.

He enumerated some of efforts the government had made to make life comfortable for persons living with disability (PWDs) and urged the college to make appropriate inputs into the review of an ongoing National Disability Policy.

Compassion

The Head of the Weija Leprosarium, Rev. Fr Andrew Campbell, admonished health professionals to be kind to the poor, disabled, needy and marginalised in society, saying: “They too are God’s creation.”

He recounted the difficulties he encountered whenever he took lepers to the hospital for care.

Fr Campbell also said it was disappointing that, 13 years after the country passed the Disability Act, the plight of PWDs had not changed.

Programmes

The Rector of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Prof. Jacob Plange-Rhule, said the college had introduced new programmes, including Paediatric Ophthalmology, which had since been approved by the Academic Board of the college.

He said the Academic Board had also approved an 18-month post-fellowship programme in spine surgery and that an interview process for first entrants had completed.

The programme will commence in January 2020.

As part of the AGSM, a consultant in Ear, Nose and Throat surgery from the United Kingdom, Prof. David John Howard, was honoured for his dedication to the development of ENT training in the country.