Anaesthetists’ Association loses confidence in Medical and Dental Council

The Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists (GACRA) says it has lost confidence in the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, accusing the council of unfair treatment towards Anaesthetists.

Renouncing its association with the Council at a press conference in Accra, the GACRA consequently asked the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to urgently establish a new regulatory body to regulate the clinical Anaesthesia practice in the country.

Additionally, the group is demanding that the Health Ministry makes an interim transitional arrangement to exit anaesthetists from the purview of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) by the end of December 2022.

President of GACRA, James Nwinsagra, addressing the press conference said the association “is dissatisfied with the manipulatory tendencies of the Medical and Dental Council in its relations with the GACRA, in ways that do not demonstrate evenhandedness".

Mr. Nwinsagra accused the Council of not serving an excellent example as a regulatory agency, adding that it continues to make clandestine attempts to have some provisions in the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 2013 (Act 857) amended to favour about 50 Physician Anaesthetists concentrated in Accra and Kumasi.

"We resolve that the MDC should learn from the best regulating institutions who at all times respect the professionals they are supposed to regulate, ward off tyranny from one group of professionals against the other and hold the scale evenly balanced for all concerned," he said.

Citing one of their concerns, he said "the MDC cannot seek to review the curriculum for the training of Certified Registered Anaesthetists without consulting us.”

With over one thousand members nationwide, providing critical service in emergency health care and safe child deliveries through cesarean section, that account for more than 40 per cent of all deliveries in Ghana, GACRA believes it's time for Certified Registered Anaesthetists to be included in the National and Regional Health Audit Committee to enable them to make the necessary input for equipping theatres with the required essential equipment.