The Ghana Society of Radiographers (GSR) marked this year's World Radiography Day with a call on stakeholders and law enforcement agencies to help rid health facilities and imaging centres of quacks.
Additionally, the GSR is urging authorities and owners of Radiological facilities to desist from engaging unqualified individuals or non-clinical health professionals to operate clinical radiological installations as it is against the law to practise without registration.
Mr Prince Rockson, President of GSR who made the call said the activities of such quack radiographers were injurious to the health of the unsuspecting general public.
The Day, which is celebrated on November 8 annually, brought together members of the radiography profession including; students and other stakeholders and it offered them the opportunity to take stock of their performances and devise strategise to promote the profession to future generations.
It was held on the theme "Your safety, our priority: the Radiographer is promoting and maintaining a safety culture".
Touching on the theme, Mr Rockson explained that patients and Radiographers' safety remained paramount to radiography considering the high sources of energy routinely deployed with its complexity and advancing technology in recent times.
He said understanding what influences the culture of radiography practice could make a significant contribution to changing for the better attitudes and behaviours of radiography professionals in relation to workplace health and safety.
"Safety can only be ensured, when people know what to do to avoid hazardous situations. Radiographers are therefore given the requisite knowledge to ensure that their actions lead to safe practice for themselves, co-workers and principally their patients", he said.
He appealed to the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to give attention to safety culture in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy as the country strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
He also called on the MOH to resource the various Imaging and Therapy units to be able to carry out quality control tests at regular times as quality control produced lowest practicable dose of radiation to patients and ensure precise ultrasonographic reports.
Mr Rockson mentioned that Ghana made notable advances with respect to radiography training and practice to meet the growing evolving scientific and clinical needs of the country.
However, he admitted that more needed to be done to train high numbers of radiographers while measures were put in place to utilize their expertise to benefit the country.
In this regard, he appealed to GETFUND and other stakeholders to provide funding opportunities to train more Radiographers to become lecturers to enable future trainees get the requisite knowledge and skills needed for the emerging future technology.
He therefore implored on the radiographers to take advantage of existing opportunities to strategically equip and position themselves to influence future policies that would enhance professionally safe practices.
Mr Rockson underscored the relevance of radiography to medical practice saying, "to better appreciate the importance of radiography, we need to imagine what medical practice would be like without the advances made in the application of x-rays and other imaging modalities as happening in our era and for the foreseeable future".
Dr Alexis Nan-Beiffubah, Central Regional Director of Health Services described the celebration as apt and appropriate as it sought to highlight the dangers in working in the radiation industry.
'Every work has its risk, so also is in the health sector. And in our industry, the radiographers are inherently most dangerous", he said.
He said improving patients safety required more than relying on the workforce and well-designed work processes, but an organisational commitment to vigilance for possible mistakes and rectifying them when they occur.
He therefore admonished health institutions to develop a positive safety culture and encouraged staff with the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully undertake responsibilities of safety at the workplace.