Danger looms in oral health sector

Danger is looming in Ghana’s oral health sector as some health centers are employing the services of Oral Health Professionals who have not been registered.

This is because, the government, has since 2019, not given financial clearance for thousands of Oral Health Professionals to be posted.

The President of the Oral Health Professionals Association of Ghana (OHPAG), Shaibu Issifu made these revelations in an interview with Onua News on Monday, November 4, 2024.

He said, “owing to the non-posting, and the post-covid brain drain, there is an enormous pressure on the oral professionals at the various health facilities, with several dental clinics across the country lacking these professionals.”

Mr. Issifu added, “some facilities have now resorted to the use of other cadres who are not licensed by law (Act 857 of 2012) to practice dentistry to augment the pressure.”

“In our country, that has high prevalence of oral health diseases, with about one out of every two persons suffering from either periodontal disease, and/or dental caries, such professionals should not be allowed to stay at home for this long,” he added.

The OHPAG President explained that “they are trained to provide ‘nursing’ care in the dental clinics.”

“Their scope of work includes receiving and registering patients at the dental clinics, setting-up for all dental surgeries or procedures, assisting the dental operators during dental surgeries or procedures, and then providing post-operative instructions after dental surgeries or procedures among a host of others,” he stressed.

Mr. Issifu said “even though trained and licensed by the government, this critical professional group has not been posted since 2019 (5years now). Ironically, their counterparts (Nurses) have received multiple financial clearances, at least in the year 2020 and 2024”.

He said, “this phenomenon portrays unfair treatment among the Ministry of Health Trainees by the very Ministry that trains them. Their recruitment would be of great help towards the achievement of SDG 3, specifically target 4 and 8.”

The Association is “urging the government to expedite action on the financial clearance for this cadre of health workforce and post them without further delay.”

He said, “their posting will bring a huge relief to the oral health fraternity of our health care sector and contribute meaningfully to the overall health of the citizenry.”