Open Letter; The Woes Of The Medical Laboratory Scientist In Ghana

By no fault of mine I was born into a forceful family who tried all their best into making sure I grow up to be self-sufficient not relying on anybody or anything. From basic education through to the tertiary level, they provided every needed support. Unfortunately for me I did not enjoy the breeze of “free education”.

With their toil, they did everything to make sure that dream of theirs, to provide the necessary support for their child, is achieved. In countless times, moving up and down this scorch sun of ours to push me up there. I couldn’t afford disappointing them. I passed all my examinations and finished school.

With my desire to help meet the healthcare needs of my country, I didn’t know it was a crime to study Medical Laboratory Science in school. I didn’t know that to help meet the healthcare needs of my motherland, I had to be a doctor or a nurse. Quite unfortunately, medical laboratory science as a course has been sidelined to the field of neglect.

After school, now as a medical laboratory scientist, I was told about this Allied Health Professions Council “council of extortion”. After registering, they conducted induction ceremony where provisional licenses for national service were issued at a fee, organized an examination at a fee, and even for the results to be released leading to permanent licensing was another journey on its own. Thinking all is done, I was asked to register with them permanently, also at a fee. After all these payments, I am still struggling to achieve the reason for studying this health program.

It is sad to say that the ministry of doctors and nurses, the institution whose job is to see to it that the healthcare needs of the country are met, see no need of employing us. The norm of the day has been this “doctor to patient ratio” and “nurse to patient ratio” but never “laboratory scientist to patient ratio”. Can everyone be a nurse or a doctor?

Is it wrong to read Medical Laboratory Science? Well, I will leave these as open questions. It is funny how the so called “big men” in the country seek for the services of the laboratory when they need them but deprive us, the need of accessing basic and quality healthcare. After all we are in this country when a big man was flown to get healthcare service but a young boy couldn’t get an ambulance to seek for further treatment at a bigger facility in the country. Let’s be careful because a wounded Medical Laboratory scientist Is like a wounded wolf, the pack is never safe!!!!