Allied Health Profession Council warns unlicensed operators

Dr Clement Opoku-Okrah, Ag Registrar of Allied Health Profession Council, has cautioned allied health professionals practicing without license to desist from the act and ensure that they ware registered.

He said it was an offence for any institution or facility to engage the services of an unlicensed person under Act 857 (2013).

“Let me also advice all allied health training institutions, both public and private alike, that they are required under the law to obtain professional accreditation for their institutions and programmes without which their students will not be allowed to write the licensure examination and, therefore, cannot be registered to practice as allied health professionals,” he said.

He said allied health professionals were key in delivering safe and effective practice and health as they provide diagnoistic, preventive, therapeutic, rehabilitative and supportive care across the range of health professions to make a real difference to the lives of patients.

However, Dr Opoku-Okrah said one major challenge facing graduates was the long period it took for to be employed after the internship programme.

“In some instances, these people are allowed to stay at home up to three years without job, ironically, a visit to our health facilities points to lack of these highly trained health professionals,” he said.

He appealed to the Minister of Health to address this critical issue to enable Ghanaians to benefit from the services of the professionals whose education was largely funded by the taxpayer’s money.