The Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists (GACRA) has raised a red flag over what they call an imposition of a ‘supposed’ scope of practice document on the members of the association by the Medical & Dental Council (MDC).
According to the GACRA, the MDC did not consult nor involve the association in the coming out of the Zero draft and therefore, “We cannot be parties in the illegal act of any attempt to get us to rubber stamp it in the sham of a so-called “Stakeholder Meeting.”
It further noted that how the scope of practice was carved will greatly deprive the public of safe anaesthesia service since the physician anaesthetists are not available to render such services.
“We are willing and ready to professionally collaborate with the medical practitioners for the safety of the patient and to enhance clinical practice, but we will not accept any attempt to impose a Physician Anaesthetist on us as a supervisor,” GACRA President, James Nwinsagra, said in an address to the media in Accra.
He said the MDC is not serving a good example of a regulatory agency when it continues to make efforts to amend the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857) to change provisions in the Act to favour about only 50 Physician Anaesthetists concentrated in Accra and Kumasi.
The GACRA said the practice would short-change its members numbering about 1000 who are physically present in the theatres including remote villages and underserved communities.
The association, therefore, called on the Ministry of Health to set up a new regulatory body to regulate the practice of clinical anaesthesia and make interim transitional arrangements by setting up a desk at the Ministry to attend to their issues and exit them from the MDC by the end of December 2022.
The group also called for an automatic extension of the 2021 retention and for the ministry of health to appoint substantive heads for the various anaesthesia training schools by appointing people from among its members who are competent and capable in the practice of anaesthesia.
The group also called for the regularization of the Career Progression for CRAs to enable them to progress in their profession.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri