Anaesthetists to strike on Friday over title change

Members of the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists have threatened to withdraw their services from tomorrow, Friday, January 31 over alleged attempts by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) to change their title to Physician Assistant (PA).

The Association views the move as a “backdoor approach” to change the already existing Bachelor of Science Anaesthesia degree awarded to Certified Registered Anaesthetists.

The Association believes this is a “clear violation of the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 857.”

Public Relations Officer for Association, Seth Mark Andoh said they will still the close of today, January 30 for a response from the Medical and Dental Council before laying down their tools.

"Medical and Dental Council are seeking to change our name from Certified Registered Anaesthetists to Physician Assistant, they are trying to harmonise our curriculum by changing the course from BSc Anaesthesia to Bsc Physician Assistant, and we are saying that does not reflect who we are and what we are doing, we have not gotten any official response from them and if by the end of today we do not hear anything then we will lay down our tools from tomorrow.."

The Association also in a statement said, “We petitioned the MDC in a letter dated 2nd October 2018 for which a copy was submitted to the office of the Health Minister during the discussion stage of the harmonization of the curriculum for training. An acknowledgement of the said letter has not been received by the MDC. The MDC has gone ahead to direct the various training schools to implement the proposed curriculum to award Bsc Physician Assistant-Anaesthesia, instead of the Bsc. Anaesthesia.”

Strikes

The Association in April embarked on a partial nationwide strike over what they said was the MDC’s attempt to change their title.

The strike was later called off after an agreement with the Ghana Health Service.

The Association threatened another strike from July 8, 2019, due to what the President of the Association, Jacob Wumbei had called government’s failure in respecting the terms of the agreement reached.

“We want to go on a strike because we do not think it is right to take our patience for a ride,” he had said.

The Association, however, called off its nationwide partial withdrawal of services following an agreement reached with the Ghana Health Service.