'Amend Drug Policy'

THE WESTERN Regional branch of the Association of Medical Counter Assistants, Ghana (AMCAG) has called for an amendment of the National Drug Policy on medicine dispensation to promote enhanced job security and quality health care delivery.

The regional association says even though it is stipulated in the policy that “Medicines shall only be dispensed by persons authorized by the 'appropriate authority,' members wanted to know what appropriate authority meant and who the 'persons to be authorized' were. 

'If these refer to the Pharmacy Council and Medicine Counter Assistants (MCAs) respectively, then the policy should make it clear and enforced,' it said.

This, the members noted could help eliminate the engagement of untrained dispensers and underemployment of trained MCAs at pharmacies and chemical shops.

Stephen Dankyi, Western Regional Vice President of AMCAG said studies recently conducted by the Kraspect Institute of Professional Studies in Takoradi and funded by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund revealed that proprietors of pharmacies and licensed chemical shops did not employ trained MCAs.

The research was conducted in collaboration with some pharmacy proprietors, licensed chemical shop owners, and officials from the Pharmacy Council and Ministry of Health from Sekondi-Takoradi.

It was aimed among other things to determine the employment situation of MCAs and its implications on medicine dispensation to the general public.

'Engaging unqualified MCAs such as relatives to the neglect of trained members has the possibility of putting the lives of our clients in danger through the dispensing of wrong medication,' Mr. Dankyi noted.

He said because they do not want to pay staff too much, some proprietors of pharmacies and chemical shops tended to engage the services of relatives and friends at the expense of MCAs who had acquired requisite skills and knowledge in accordance with the Pharmacy Act 1994.

'To make the profession more attractive, members of the association must adhere to the basic criteria for applying as licensed chemical sellers which is obtaining the MCA qualification,' he added.

He recommended that the engagement of MCAs by all licensed chemical shops should be made mandatory by the National Health Insurance Authority.

He also indicated the Pharmacy Council should set a deadline for all facilities offering pharmaceutical care services to engage trained MCAs.  

  From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi