The former Tema East Member of Parliament, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus Glover, has berated the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana for its decision not to recognise degree certificates of Ghanaian doctors trained in Ukraine.
According to him, the decision of the council is not only unfair but also illogical because the nation badly needs the services of doctors.
The council said that it will no longer recognise degree certificates issued by Medical and Dental Schools from Ukraine, as some schools have resorted to studying online.
According to citinewsroom.com, the council said that the training of these students online is not in accordance with the required process and will not be accepted as it threatens the quality and credence of the profession.
“Training to be a doctor must be in accordance with established strategies. Will potential patients be happy to be treated by a doctor who was trained online? We have to take our public interest responsibility seriously. The point is what is the kind of training that is acceptable in the world? If it is not standard, then, I am afraid, this regulator will not give any stamp of approval,” citinewsroom.com quoted the Council’s Registrar, Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala.
He, therefore, urged students to take advantage of the government’s intervention to continue their training in Ghana rather than taking online lessons.
But speaking in a Multimedia interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Titus Glover, who is also a former deputy minister of transport, intimated that there is nothing wrong with students studying online given the advancement in technology.
He added that the students not being able to complete their education through in-person tutoring was no fault of theirs.
“Parents paid money for their wards to have some education in Ukraine and because of the Russian invasion, they had to come back home.
“During the COVID-19 era were the universities not running online programmes? The online courses are still going on in the country.
“We plead with the Medical and Dental Council to reverse their decision. Lawyers who train abroad are given the chance to take the professional exam when they come back home. Why are we not giving the doctors from Ukraine the chance to write the medical examination because we need more doctors? For them to tell them that we don’t recognise doctors from Ukraine is unfair,” he said in Twi.