There is good reason why medical practice is tied to near sacred ethics, the breach of any of which can lead to withdrawal of the authority to practise.
We do not know whether blending the practice with partisan politics is part of the medical practice code or not. If it is not, considering the good its incorporation would lend to the interest of the practice and above all the protection of lives, we ask that this be considered for future inclusion.
So sacred are the canons of medical practice that one of the conventions of war allows for the treatment of enemy soldiers by doctors in uniform on the opposite frontline.
In Ghana, a rather dangerous phenomenon is rearing its head in medical practice which calls for the treatment by the highly revered Ghana Medical and Dental Council. We are referring to the creeping contamination of the profession by partisan politics, of course, subtly garbed to evade attention.
It started with a group of doctors asking that the now successfully ended voters’ registration be cancelled lest the healthcare system is overwhelmed with the Covid-19 cases.
While we appreciated the concern although we did not concur with the points raised; we stopped short of commenting on it inclemently. As we held our breath and observed the Covid-19 trend in Ghana vis-a-vis the so-called scary modelling by international watchers, another group of doctors who sounded like being an appendage of a political party found space in the media and spewed a warning directly at the Electoral Commission (EC).
We asked the concerned political party affiliated grouping to rather go and educate Ghanaians on the hygiene protocols or go and get serious with their clinical work.
It ended there; they shut up and things did not get out of hands.
Last week, while Ghana was coming to terms with the reality of the ‘Papa No’ moral contagion, a doctor who once headed the Greater Regional Accra Hospital, aka Ridge Hospital, an experienced professional, without doubt joined the fray of Covid-19 politics according to the terms of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Dr. Thomas Anaba appears to have taken over the leadership of the Covid-19 politics in the NDC leaving us to wonder why he is not part of the John Mahama campaign team even as he carried the stethoscope on his shoulder.
He said that had the Covid-19 pandemic occurred during the tenure of the NDC, the disease would have been contained within 21-days. Blimey! What imbecility!
While that sounds outlandish, it is incommensurate with a medical doctor of his standing who should know better, without telling lies to Ghanaians.
The NDC created a committee to manage Covid-19 as though the party had mutated from an opposition grouping to a ruling one with executive powers. We do not know what has happened to the committee which was anything but productive.
That a medical doctor can make this claim convinces us that there is something about the NDC which makes those who join it think and speak outside the confines of logic.
What would have the NDC done differently to make the gains the NPP government achieved pale into insignificance?
Anyway, the active cases are dwindling at a time when European countries and others who appeared to have subdued the virus are returning to lockdown mode. Kudos to our non-partisan doctors who are busy in the consulting rooms, theatres and wards managing cases, with their cocktail of medications resulting in heartwarming and stress-relieving recoveries.
When Dr. Anthony Fauci, American Infectious Disease Expert and Neurosurgeon Dr. Gupta Sanjay both faces in the anti-Covid-19 pandemic war in the US hear our Dr. Anaba, they would marvel but they shouldn’t. This is how association with the NDC can change the thinking of people regardless of their experiences.