Physician Assistants to boycott OPD services from Monday

Physician Assistants in government health facilities have served notice that they will from Monday, September 10 withdraw Out Patient Department (OPD) services across hospitals in the country.

The move, they said in a communique, was necessitated because government through the Health Ministry and its implementing agencies such as the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has been uncommitted in resolving the numerous challenges facing them.

Some of the challenges include; salary discrepancies among cadres of the same professional, obsolete job description, career progression/advancement/ specialization for physician assistants, the condition of service and appointments of physician assistants as heads of health centers and sub-districts.

The rest are accreditation status of College of Health, Kintampo, internship allowances, financial clearance for both public and private trained Physician assistants an NHIS medicine list.

According to the physician assistants, they will not back down on their decision until all their concerns have been fully addressed.

It would be recalled that students of the Kintampo College of Health and Well-Being in May this year poured onto the principal streets of Kintampo to protest the non-accreditation of three of their degree programmes.

In a peaceful procession, the students wield placards some of which read: “Incompetent management must go,” “No Accreditation, No Exams,” “We stand by our degree students”.

The programs are Physician Assistant, Mental Health and Dental Therapy.

In a petition addressed to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Edward Etse Aloryito, the protest leader alleged that some tutors of the college “have turned themselves into cabals of the college and must go” to pave way for the physician assistant program accreditation by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council.”