The Medical and Dental Council of Ghana is urging students who are currently studying Medicine and Dentistry in Ukraine to take advantage of government’s intervention to continue their training in Ghana.
The Council says it will no longer recognize degree certificates issued by Medical and Dental Schools from Ukraine, as some schools have resorted to studying online. According to the Council, such platforms fall short of the required training process.
The Council’s Registrar, Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala said his outfit would not compromise the standards of the profession.
“Training to be a doctor must be in accordance with established strategies. Will potential patients be happy to be treated by a doctor who was trained online? We have to take our public interest responsibility seriously. The point is what is the kind of training that is acceptable in the world? If it is not standard, then, I am afraid, this regulator will not give any stamp of approval”, he said.
Newly trained doctors are granted licences to practice in Ghana after the examination.
In 2019 for instance, a total of 157 out of 225 foreign trained Ghanaian doctors who sat for the Medical and Dental Council (MDC)’s examination failed.
Only 68, representing a 30.2 per cent pass rate, were able to prove their mettle in the examination.
The 225 comprises 208 general duty medical doctors, eight general duty dentists, eight specialists and a ‘matured’ candidate, who studied in more than 10 universities in China, Ukraine, Russia, Philippine and Belarus for six years.
The bi-annual examination, introduced in 2000, is to ensure that doctors trained in other countries had the requisite knowledge and skill to offer medical and dental care to patients in the country.
The failure rate had been so for the past 19 years, as more than 50 per cent of foreign-trained candidates, who sat the examination, failed each year.
He said the highest pass rate of 48 per cent was recorded in November 2017 with 139 candidates while the lowest pass rate was recorded in February the same year in which 180 candidates were examined.
Ghanaians trained as doctors in Cuba and Venezuela, are said to be performing better.
