A total of 454 newly qualified medical and dental practitioners were on Saturday inducted into the profession in Accra.
They were drawn from the University of Ghana Medical School and Dental School, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Medicine and Dentistry and University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences.
Others were from Family Health University College, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Accra Medical College, University of Development Studies and foreign trained doctors who passed the Council’s registration examination.
The induction ceremony was held in Accra on the theme “Guiding the profession, protecting the public”.
The Minister of Health, in a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, Mahama Seini, advised the inductees to remember the oath they had taken, the pre-induction lectures in medical professionalism and conduct, professional ethics and medical jurisprudence that council organised for them and with effort, honesty, passion and respect serve Ghanaians.
“Any keen follower of the healthcare sector would have noticed that recent media reportage is replete with claims of professional negligence, improper conduct and unethical behaviour by our doctors, dentists, physician assistants, nurses and pharmacists who are the very people who openly swore the Oaths and committed themselves to serve us in our most vulnerable states are now our abusers,” he said.
The Minister urged the newly inducted doctors and dentists to stay in the country to serve and also accept responsibility to go to the rural areas to serve Ghanaians.
Mr Agyemang-Manu congratulated the Medical and Dental Council on its 50th anniversary.
“To the board and management of this esteem agency, I must say that an anniversary is a good occasion to look back on what you have done and I am confident that the council can do this with satisfaction and happiness because it has been a pacesetter in professional regulation in Ghana and continues to provide invaluable services and contributions to the medical and dental professionals and the profession both locally and internationally”.
The chairman of the Medical and Dental Council, Prof. Paul K Nyame, in his address, admitted that the council had become aware of the proliferation of unqualified practitioners throughout Ghana.
“The council’s investigative arm is aggressively on the of these unqualified practitioners, however, it is the duty of the council to ensure that, while we chase and try to pull out quacks, students entering our medical and dental schools get adequate exposure to a high standard of training in all the relevant disciplines”.
The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, in his address remindered them that the noble, honourable, and learned profession of medicine required of them a great smile, a listening ear, a kind heart, calm nerves, a critical and reflective mind, an unalloyed commitment to lifelong learning.
BY SAMUEL GYASI ODURO
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