Health workers in Ashanti sensitised on medical practice

Kumasi, Aug. 20, GNA- A day's seminar, aimed at sensitising health workers in the Ashanti Region on laws and ethics in medical practice, was held in Kumasi on Friday.

The seminar was organised under the auspices of the Paediatric Society of Ghana in collaboration with Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), School of Medical Sciences (SMS) and Faculty of Law of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Participants were updated on the laws relevant to health care providers in the discharge of their duties with the view to ensuring that they upheld ethical standards in medical care. In an address, Dr Eli Atikpui, Registrar of the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, enjoined health workers to do away with laxity and malpractices that tended to thwart efforts aimed at ensuring effective health care delivery in the country. He said health workers should at all times respect patients' charter and avoid unnecessary demands that amounted to professional misconduct.

"They should also not discriminate against any one, since a medical practitioner owed to his patient, complete loyalty", Dr Atikpui remarked.

Dr Atikpui charged the doctors and dentists to continuously abreast themselves of the Medical and Dental Decree to help enhance and also streamline their activities. Professor Ben Baffoe-Bonnie, Chairman of the Paediatric Society of Ghana, stated that the seminar formed part of measures being instituted by the Society to update health workers on the laws relevant to their practices so as to ensure that they maintained ethical standards and a high sense of discipline in health care delivery. 20 Aug 06