Dr Benjamin Aflakpui, Head of the Physician-Assistantship Department of the Central University College (CUC), on Wednesday urged government to introduce the Physician-Assistant Programme in all the country's universities, to solve the scarcity problem, especially in the rural areas.
He said it was disheartening that there were nine doctors and 84 nurses per 100,000 people in Ghana, whereas in the United States, it was 166
Physicians and 497 nurses per the same population.
Dr Aflakpui was speaking at the launch of the Physicians-Assistants Students Association of Ghana (PASAG) at the Miotso Campus of the CUC near Prampram.
The launch had as its theme: "The Role of the Physician-Assistant in the Delivery of Quality and Effective Health Care in Ghana."
Dr Eli Atikpui, Registrar of the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, advised medical students to be disciplined whenever they moved to the field to practice their profession.
He expressed regret about the breeding of some charlatan medical practitioners, who he said, were tarnishing the good image of the noble
profession.
"Anyone who does things contrary to the ethics of the Council would have his license withdrawn by the council," he cautioned.
Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director of Human Resource of the Ministry of Health said; "Of late the health sector seems to be losing its
image of being loving and respectful; people see some health workers as rude, casual in their approach to serve and unprofessional, which in reality should not be the case."
Mr. Martin Ankomah, Registrar of Human Resource of the Ghana Health Service, advised the students to adhere to the rules and regulations
governing the medical profession, in order to gain the trust of patients.
He advised them not to take advantage of the profession to get into illicit relationship with patients.
Mr. Shaibu Mohammed, President of the Association, urged government and other stakeholders to speed up proceedings to have the physician assistants regularised in the health delivery system in Ghana.
He promised that the Association would collaborate with other associations in the health care system, in order to provide good health care
for Ghanaians.