Newly inducted doctors and dentists in Ghana have been urged to accept postings in underserved and hard-to-reach communities to help improve access to healthcare and support the country’s drive towards universal health coverage.
Dr Hafiz Adam Taher, Director of Technical Coordination at the Ministry of Health (MoH), made the appeal during an induction ceremony in Accra for 118 newly qualified medical and dental practitioners.
The event was organised by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), the statutory body responsible for regulating the training and practice of medicine and dentistry in Ghana.
Dr Taher said the ceremony represented an important step as the inductees moved into professional practice. Their addition would also strengthen Ghana’s health workforce, which numbers more than 14,000 practitioners.
Congratulating the doctors and dentists on behalf of the Government and the Ministry of Health, he said their qualification reflected years of discipline, sacrifice and perseverance.
“The oath you have taken is not merely ceremonial. It is a solemn covenant with humanity,” he said.
Dr Taher urged the new practitioners to place the welfare of patients ahead of their personal interests and to carry out their duties with compassion, integrity and humility.
He said professional knowledge could earn the respect of patients and colleagues, but humility was essential to winning their trust.
The Ministry of Health’s commitment to universal health coverage, he added, included the Free Primary Health Care Policy. Its success would depend partly on whether qualified professionals were prepared to work in deprived communities and locations that were difficult to reach.
Dr Taher also called on practitioners who had not yet reported to their assigned stations to do so promptly. He acknowledged that some postings could present difficulties, but said they should be viewed as an important professional responsibility rather than a setback.
“Posting is not a punishment. It is a mark of professional trust and responsibility,” he said.
In some communities, he added, the presence of one doctor could determine whether a patient received timely treatment or suffered an avoidable loss of life.
Although he recognised the challenges linked to certain appointments, Dr Taher said medicine was a vocation that required service beyond personal comfort.
He praised the MDC for commissioning the first phase of its Cancer Specialist Training Centre and Head Office complex. He also welcomed the Council’s introduction of professional identification measures, including practitioner stamps, name tags and professional apparel, in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Authority.
The ministerial director congratulated the Council on being chosen to host the 28th Annual Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa later this month.
The MDC was established under Part II of the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857). Its statutory role is to regulate the education, training and professional practice of doctors and dentists in Ghana.
MDC chairman stresses standards
Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Chairman of the MDC, told the inductees that professionalism required doing “the right thing all the time at the highest level and to all manner of persons.”
He said patients’ welfare must remain their primary concern. He also urged them to maintain their competence through continuous professional development, protect patient confidentiality, reject discrimination and work only within the limits of their training and expertise.
Prof Akosa appealed to parents and guardians to encourage their children to accept postings anywhere in Ghana instead of seeking transfers to preferred locations.
“Ghana is everywhere, and everywhere there are people who need your services,” he said.
He described housemanship as the foundation on which the inductees would build their professional careers. They were encouraged to work diligently, seek advice from senior colleagues and gain the respect of their peers through competence, integrity and committed service.
