Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala and Dr. William Kedjanyi signing the agreement
The Medical and Dental Council (MDC) of Ghana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghanaian Doctors and Dentists Association UK (GDDA-UK).
The MoU is primarily intended to facilitate the process of registration of GDDA-UK members who are willing to support the Ghanaian health system through the training of undergraduate and postgraduate doctors and dentists, the provision of specialist and sub-specialist healthcare services, and collaboration with colleagues in health research.
It also brings to fruition many years of discussions between the GDDA-UK executives and the council regarding the bottleneck created by the credentialing and licensing process for UK-based Ghanaian physicians as well as other physicians with a vested interest in contributing to training, specialty, and subspecialty service provision including organ/tissue transplantation procedures and health research collaboration.
Additionally, the MoU will expedite the process and reduce the cost by fifty percent.
Another provision is a waiver of examination in certain special situations for select UK-based physicians. This expedited process will be provided through membership of GDDA-UK.
Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) of Ghana and Dr. William Kedjanyi, President of GDDA-UK signed the agreement.
The event took place at the 18th Annual Health Conference of the GDDA-UK in London on October 7, 2023.
Addressing dignitaries at the signing, Dr. Kedjanyi underscored the relevance of the agreement noting that it will make it easier for GDDA-UK members to register with MDC Ghana so as to be able to offer quality and safe specialist and sub-specialist medical and dental services as well as supporting academic activities.
Dr. Banyubala, on his part, stated that harnessing diaspora resources and leveraging technology was at the core of the vision of the council to boost the local training of doctors and dentists both at the general duty and specialist levels; quality and safe specialist services; and collaborative health research.
He explained that these are follow-up actions from the consensus policy decisions that flowed from last year’s historic medical and dental training and practice conference organised by the council as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
He informed the conference that the council was committed to decentralisation of the training of doctors and dentists to regional and municipal/ district hospitals as a means to deal with issues of inequity in the distribution of doctors and dentists as well as access to specialist services.
Dr. Banyubala stated that a similar MoU signed last year between the Ghana Physicians and Surgeons Foundation for North America and the council had started yielding tangible results.
He commended the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons for starting postgraduate training in Holy Family Hospital, Techiman, and Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital, Takoradi.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Ghana’s High Commissioner to UK and Republic of Ireland, said this historic event fitted into the embassy and government’s agenda of mobilising Ghanaians in the diaspora for national development.
He expressed his gratitude to Dr. Banyubala and the board of the council for their vision and commitment that made the MoU a reality. He also charged executives of GDDA-UK to work hard to ensure that the MoU yields the needed results.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, affirmed the support of the Committee and Parliament for collaboration, which has the potential to position Ghana as the health tourism hub for West Africa.
By Prince Fiifi Yorke