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04.07.2015 Headlines

Physician Assistants send warning message to govt

04.07.2015 LISTEN
By Abubakari Seidu Ajafor

The Ghana Physician Assistants Association [GPAA] has registered their displeasure over the failure by government to address their grievances.

The Vice President of the Association, Alhassan Zakaria said that there are no demonstrable evidence that govt is willing to solve issues that are affecting the smooth operations of Physician Assistants [PA] in the country.

He mentioned that the Association has over the decades been battling the govt over issues bordering them.

"Our problems are as old as our existence; Physician Assistants does majority of the work in the health facilities whiles doctors take the credit for everything. The question is that who are we assisting?" he intimated.

He added that Physician Assistants [PA] are the gatekeeper in every health facility across the country where most of the work in the hospital is done by them and yet little attention is paid to them while doctors take the full glory.

Speaking in an interview with the Punch, Mr. Zakaria indicated all the ten regional executives of the Association have met in Accra to decide the next step of action and therefore, they will advice themselves if government fails this time around to address their needs.

According to the Vice President of the Association, govt and the responsible authorities must review the job description of Physician Assistants to match with current training and output.

He explained that on the field, Physician Assistants work does not conform to the official job description on the legal document, their services are overdrawn and yet the authorities sees nothing wrong in that.

He added that the Physician Assistants go through hell and sometimes denied access to register and own a private clinic, a member is only allowed when he/she can secure the licensed certificate of a retired doctor which mostly creates the room for the retired doctor to extort big sums of monies even before and after the clinic has been set to operate.

According to him, the obnoxious procedure is shambolic and barbaric which will incur the wrath of Physician Assistants in the country if govt refuses to respond to this last resort.

He added that there is lack of educational roadmap for Physicians Assistants to upgrade their profession to abreast themselves with the more difficult trends in the field.

According to them, govt must design a well-defined and feasible career progression for PAs to further their education career to become more professional in their services.

The Vice President noted that the extreme delay of NHIA in reimbursement of tariffs where Cash and Carry is zero percent is collapsing most district hospitals and health centres in rural communities.

He added that the difference in the nomenclature of Medical Assistants and Physician Assistants is useless and therefore, govt must provide a unified name and salary structure since they both plays similar roles.

The Vice President posited that govt must review their condition of services urging that Ministry of Employment and Labour relations, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Fair Wages and Salary Commission must accept the inputs of Physicians Assistants otherwise they will advice themselves.

By Abubakari Seidu Ajarfor, [email protected]

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