The suspect, Adams Arimiyaw, was arrested by the Madina Divisional Police at the Covenant Clinic in Madina.

[contextly_sidebar id=”79Efz7PrOF0QNWaaqHwy5lgu6jTs6AbY”]According to the Medical and Dental Council, the suspect had earlier been arrested in 2016 for the same offence, and that the case is still before an Accra Circuit Court.

The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Eli Kwasi Atikpui, who spoke to Citi News about the arrest, noted that, “sometime in February 2017, he stopped going to court under the pretext that he was indisposed. Then a bench warrant was issued for his arrest around June 2017.”

The Council had not head anything from him till the recent arrest.

“He continued to practice at the clinic. We don’t know who opened the place [Covenant Clinic] up for him. On Thursday, we went back there to get the place locked up,” Dr. Atikpui said.

20 fake doctors busted since January 2016

Investigations by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) have led to the arrest of 20 quack doctors across the country since January 2016.

Ten of such fake doctors were busted in Accra, two at Tema, two in the Volta Region, two in the Eastern Region, one in the Brong Ahafo Region and three in the Central Region.

Another fake doctor jailed 17 years in Hohoe

In October this year, one of such self-styled doctors, who was arrested at the Family Community Hospital at Hohoe in the Volta Region, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The convict, Fortune Kamasah, was sentenced on two counts of practicing without authority, and receiving payment for the practice of medicine without authority.

Fraud in the health sector

A Deputy Minister of Health, Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, had recently been lamenting the high rate of fraud in the health sector, describing it as one with the weakest level of accountability in the country.

According to him, some health sector professionals in Ghana charged with responsibilities do not want to be accountable in the discharge of their duties, hence the rising number of corruption-related cases.

–

By: Naa Kwarmah Siaw Marfo/citifmonine.com/Ghana

The post Fake doctor on trial arrested again at Madina appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Council had said back in May 2016 that, it would introduce practitioners’ stamps in July of that year, but more than a year following the announcement, the plans for the mandatory use of the stamps are now being rolled out.

[contextly_sidebar id=”I0LTF8MzIuTEEjICSZZRLyLi4PgGswgN”]The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Eli Atikpui,  said this measure is being put in place to ensure that practitioners with the Council are easily identified by the patients they care for.

This he believes will help root out persons who operate as medical practitioners without licenses.

“Any practitioner that has registered with the Medical and Dental Council has a unique number, and Council is saying that, from January next year, all practitioners working in Ghana in any health institution registered by the  Medical and Dental Council should carry a practitioners’ stamp. When you go to your institution and you are given a prescription, the first thing to look out for is the practitioner’s stamp where you’ll have the practitioner’s name and unique number,” he said

Dr. Atikpui also stated that, the Council was working on getting their practitioners to wear name tags as well, in the institutions they work.

“The other thing is we are trying to ensure that any institution that has practitioners working in, they practitioners should go there with name tags. These are the things we are trying to institute to ensure that we are all safe and the Ghanaian at large is safe,” he added.

Meanwhile, a former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, has lauded the new directive, but called for more cooperation between the public and the regulatory agencies.

“It’s a step in the right direction, the public should be educated that the doctor is the one who has undertaken a course of study and has been certified to practice. You only know that doctor by the stamp of the regulatory body, if the public understands this, anytime you go to any place and somebody prescribes something you are not afraid because you know where to seek clarifications,” he said.

“There are a lot of people who practice in the villages that the public are not aware of. In that case, they need to work closely with the people at the health facility regulatory agencies.”

Quacks rooted out

Since January 2016, 20 quack doctors have been arrested across the country.

Ten (10) of the quack doctors were arrested in the Greater Accra Region, three in the Central Region, and the rest were arrested in the Volta and Eastern Regions.

Dr. Atikpui explained that, of the 20 arrested, five had been prosecuted and sentenced.

–

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Doctors to carry special stamps from 2018 to root out quacks appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Dr Eli Kwasi Atikpui, the Registrar of the MDC, who conducted a roll-call of the inductees, said they were from the University of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, College of Health and Wellbeing, Kintampo, the Central University, Miotso, Narh Bita College, Tema, and the Schools of Anaesthesia of 37 Military, Ridge and Komfo Anokye Teaching hospitals.

He said the inductees would be issued with provisional registrations to enable them to undertake their one-year internship and national service in an accredited institution, which would also serve as a prerequisite for their permanent registration by the Council.

Mr Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu, a Deputy Minister of Health, led the inductees, as part of their Oath of office, to sing and recite the National Anthem and Pledge respectively, which enjoined to uphold the tenets of patient anatomy, kindness, non-malfeasance, and justice as well as to defend the good name of Ghana.

He said the inductees were accountable for their actions and inactions in their professional practice and must be prepared to justify their decisions.

Mr Aboagye-Gyedu said Government, within the constraints of its budget, had made great efforts to overcome the inherent challenges within the health sector, which included provisions for professional training, conditions of service with remunerations, logistics and improved health facilities, housing and transportation.

He said the massive brain drain of health professionals to seek greener pastures, mainly in Europe and America, was a major concern to government and all Ghanaians, adding that about 4,000 doctors and 15,000 nurses had left the country since 1996.

“Some estimates indicate that it cost about GHC100,000 to train a Physician Assistant or a Certified Registered Anaesthetist from Senior High School to their training institutions,” he said, and urged health professionals to place their benefactors, who were the Ghanaian tax payers, above their own interests as they had sworn to do.

Mr Aboagye-Gyedu said Ghana’s economy was just beginning to recover from a rather difficult past and there was the need for patience on all sides.

Dr Constance Addo-Yobo, the immediate past Chief Dental Officer of the Ghana Health Service, and a Member of the Ninth Board of the MDC, later led the inductees to pledge their allegiance to the service of humanity by swearing the Oath of the Physician Assistant and Certified Registered Anesthetist.

The Oath, she said, required practitioners to, among other things, hold as their primary responsibility the health, safety, welfare and dignity of all human beings, treat all persons who sought care equally, strive to improve their practice, and work as a team with other health professionals.

Dr Addo-Yobo advised the inductees to exhibit the values of humility, respect, submissiveness, integrity, hard work, and the fear of God, while maintaining a high ethical standard to raise the image of the profession.

–

Source: GNA

The post Medical and Dental Council inducts 386 professionals appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The inductees were trainees from the College of Health, Central University College, Garden City and Presbyterian universities, Narh-Bita College, the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, 37 Military Hospital and the University of Development Studies Anesthesia schools.

Dr Eli Kwasi Atikpui, the Registrar of the DMC, after conducting a roll-call of the inductees, handed them over to Dr Eric Asamoah, the Chairman of the Eight Board of the Council, who led them in the swearing of the Physician Assistant and Certified Registered Anesthetists’ Oath.

The Oath charges practitioners, among other things, to uphold the tenets of patient autonomy, beneficence, ensuring no-malfeasance and justice, and also learn to share and expand their knowledge within the profession.

Dr Asamoah gave a little history about the profession, saying practitioners were trained to provide medical services especially in areas where there were no doctors and also to be team players in hospitals to assist in providing quality care to patients.

He said the role of those group of health practitioners had grown in recent times leading to the expansion of their training from the traditional universities to the private ones.

Dr Asamoah said the MDC’s regulation of the professionals was, therefore, crucial to maintain professionalism and quality and bring out the best for both patients and the practitioners themselves.

He congratulated the inductees for their successful passage and urged them to be diligent in their work, respecting the views of others and ensuring the regular upgrading of their professional knowledge in order to be abreast of modern trends of medicine and healthcare.

Brigadier General Ralph Ametepe, the Director General of the Ghana Armed Forces Health Services, led the inductees to recite the National Pledge and urged them to imbibe the words and keep them in their hearts in order to remain loyal to their country and Africa in general.

–

Source: GNA

The post Newly qualified physician assistants and anaesthetists inducted appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.