Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie
The “‘Big Men’ interfering in the work of the Medical, Dental Council” alarm raised by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, is not an issue we should push under the carpet.
It demands a public discourse with a view to sufficiently exposing and stemming it appropriately. It is certainly in the interest of the public to do so.
Any action which impedes the quality of health delivery should be tackled robustly regardless of the source of such interference.
It is about the health of human beings and so the regulatory body responsible for ensuring the efficiency of personnel at the helm of health delivery should be independent of so-called ‘big men’ be they in politics, business or ministry.
In the past few weeks, the council has cracked the whip on quack doctors, some of whom have operated for long and doing so below the radar of the regulatory authority.
Occasionally, some of the quack doctors are exposed and put before court, the deterring action, not enough though to stop the dangerous trend as evidenced by the incessant rise of the statistics of fake doctors and poisonous pharmaceutical products across the country especially, in the hinterland.
The quack doctors, spotting their stethoscopes to enhance their status, hoodwink their victims, prescribe medicines and sometimes attempt certain procedures and in the event worsen the plight of their victims.
While we salute the commitment of the MDC in ensuring that the quality of medical practice is not eroded, we would be quick to add that those who interfere in the work of the council and impede their efficiency should be named and shamed.
The dangers posed by certain drugs and the fallouts from mixing them with others are facts best appreciated by professionals yet, the quacks go ahead to prescribe medications without the slightest knowledge of what they are doing.
The need to stop such quacks in their tracks is not something which should be compromised under any circumstance.
Considering the seriousness of the issue under review, we wish Dr. Afriyie would not stop at merely raising a red flag about what he has observed but recommending effective ways to stem the anomaly.
Dr. Afriyie is a gentleman, a medical doctor, who knows what he is talking about. Until his concern was vented, such interference was hardly known by the public.
Some of us thought such interferences could not be extended to medical practice. Doctors who allow themselves to be bullied by ‘big men’ to act unethically, by playing along with such persons are destroying the foundation of one of the most respectable professions on earth, and acting in breach of the Hippocratic Oath they swore.
The MDC can protect the pillars of medical practice by standing up to interferences; we can bet them public support in this regard.
Quack doctors, they are many and active, should be exposed and made to face the full rigours of the law regardless of the quantum of interferences originating from ‘big men.’