Apply intelligence with good character - Mr Agyeman-Manu

Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health has urged graduating Allied Health professionals to apply intelligence with good character, to achieve professionalism in their practices.

He further discouraged them from compromising on the ethics, Oath and Code of Conduct of the profession, as well as their integrity, as others were doing, but to invest and attain high standards in their service delivery, respecting their clients and other colleagues in their course of practice.

“You must maximise your training by applying your skills combined with the humanity in you, to ensure quality health care delivery”, he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu gave the advice in an address at the sixth Induction and Oath Swearing ceremony organised by the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC), for 1,500 newly qualified Professionals, who were due for their mandatory one year internship practices.

The professionals included Audiologists, Health Promotion officers, Community Mental Health officers, Disease Control officers, Environmental Health and Health Information Officers.

Others were Nutritionists, Medical and Dental Laboratory Scientists, Physiotherapists, Radiographers (Diagnostics and Therapy), Dieticians, Optometrists, Sonographers, Speech Therapists, and Occupational Therapists.

Mr Agyeman-Manu congratulated the graduands for their achievements, praying that, they pressed ahead to achieve excellence in their practices, and to contribute their quota towards the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage.

He said although government acknowledged the numerous constraints that confronted the Allied Health profession, their role in quality health care delivery was very much valued, and seen as indispensable to the attainment of the health-related and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He however expressed his concern about the proliferation of quack medical laboratories and practices, which was gradually assuming an alarming trend, and charged the AHPC to take immediate steps to arrest the situation.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said government remained committed to expanding the training of Allied Health Professionals by improving its investment in their education, and further ensure a paradigm shift by prioritising their placement on the job market.

He also stressed on the use of dialogue in addressing their grievances and needs, rather than resorting to strike actions, and urged the health professionals to remain loyal to their Oath of practice.

Prof. Clement Opoku-Okrah, a former Acting Registrar of the Allied Health Professions Council, addressing the theme: “Achieving the Health-Related Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of the Allied Health professional”, insisted that although the acquisition of basic training and skills were good, they required sustained scaling up to achieve maximum impact on society.

He encouraged the graduands to seek further training to boost their foundations, building up on what they had already acquired to achieve high standards of professionalism to deliver quality services to their clients.

He said health, was so much linked to the many non-health related goals as they were inter-related, and it was the reason why the sector must address all emerging challenges in a holistic manner, eliminating as much as possible, the complex barriers that prevented access, affordability and equality in quality services to all Ghanaians.

He urged the government to ensure job security and protection for especially, Allied Health Professionals, as well as financial and other packages to boost the morale of those working in deprived environment and communities, while enhancing the curriculum of training institutions to embrace modern contents and models, making practical training a core aspect of the course.

Dr Samuel Yaw Opoku, the current Acting Registrar of the of the Allied Health Professions Council, led the graduands to take the Allied Health Professions Oath, which among other things, commit practitioners to guard and defend those who they served with respect to their records and well-being.

He urged the practitioners to devote their professional lives to the service of all mankind and consider the welfare of humanity as their primary concern.

Dr Opoku said a total of 3,500 Allied Health graduates had been prepared for induction this year, however these had been divided into three batches due to the huge numbers, therefore the other ceremonies would be held in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.