Medical practitioners to be issued with unique stamps to check quacks

The Ghana Medical and Dental Council will from July this year begin issuing a special stamp to all registered medical practitioners in the country in a new move to check quacks in the system.

Known as the practitioners stamp, it will have the name and registration number of the practitioner embossed on it, the Registrar of the Council Dr Eli Kwesi Atikpui has revealed to 3FM

"By the beginning of next month, practitioners who may be practicing [and] registered by the Council will be using a practitioners stamp," Dr Atikpui said.

He added: "So when you go there [health facility] and the practitioner stamps any prescription or document and you do not have the name specified on the stamp [and] the registration number, then you should know that that person may not have been registered by the council".

He said the stamp would have strong security feature to prevent it from being faked by unscrupulous persons, saying "We are conscious of the security systems and therefore the stamps will be such that there will not be any duplication".

Mr Atikpui noted that a number of medical practitioners were breaching the laws governing the profession, noting that some of them have been advertising themselves contrary to what the law governing their practice.

Speaking to 3FM, he said ‘by law, a medical registered medical and dental practitioner should not advertise. But when you go unto our networks even on TV people are holding themselves up and doing all sort of things."

He indicated that although all the councils regulating nurses and midwives, pharmacists, allied health professionals and even traditional medicine does not allow practitioners to advertise, they go round advertising themselves.

"I know and have checked that in their laws, they are not supposed to advertise and make certain claims," he said