OWING THE SYSTEM, THE ORDEAL OF THE PROSPECTIVE ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.
The cliché; ‘that is the law’, has given our ‘big men’ the access to operate a system that tends to suffocate the very people that need help to start life as beginners.
Laid down procedures to genuinely start a business in Ghana as a youth costs about half your startup capital if not more, but there is no excuse to be idle.
This article tends to concentrate on the Health System and its regulators in Ghana.
Undoubtedly, the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC) is the major feed to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) and the Islamic Health.
Per the Health Professional Regulatory Bodies Act 2013 (ACT 857) Part 1, the AHPC has the mandate to regulate professionals under the , Medical Laboratory, Community Mental Health, Physiotherapy, Health Information, Dental Surgery Technology, Disease Control, Dietetics, Prosthetics and Orthopedics, Environmental health, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Health Records, Sonography, but to mention a few.
In 2019, the AHPC inducted a total of Three Thousand, Five Hundred and Eight (3508) Diploma and BSc prospective professionals from various approved institution in the country accordinlg to the 2019 induction hand out. Comparing this figure to our colleagues from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the Medical and Dental Council and the Pharmacy Council, the AHPC has the numbers.
The AHPC is managing the professions a bit well, but I think the system should be rechecked as the same system will soon asphyxiate its prospective professionals.
Considering prospective professionals inducted in 2019, each of the 3508 paid an amount of GH₵175.00 for provisional license. As many as these youths wrote the licensure exam paid GH₵225.00 for licensure exam registration. As many as passed the exam paid GH₵220.00 for permanent PIN. In all, a single prospective professional owes that system a whopping amount of GH₵620.00 excluding CPD charges and renewal charges. This means in 2019 alone, say 2508 out of the 3508 were successful to the last stage of attaining a permanent PIN, the AHPC sucked GH₵1,554,960.00 from youth yet to start
After all these monies paid as a prospective professional, the AHPC keeps reminding graduates in the licensure exam, a clause in their constitution that says the council does not give employment to its members. This means that, once the license is issued, you can be unemployed for years, the AHPC is not concerned about you, and all it needs is the 10CPDs and your GH₵120.00 for renewal. What a system that does not care about the condition of its own prospective professional? Surprisingly, the AHPC does not also negotiate the working conditions of its members, hence the professional have to join labor unions for that service at a cost as deduction from the peanut they receive.
Frankly speaking, 90% of the AHPC members cannot justify the relevance of the provisional PIN.
All approved AHPC institution in the country graduate their students sometime July every year. These graduates stay home for the whole of August to prepare for National Service. Is it not 100% possible to write the licensure exam in August to save these young ones the GH₵215.00 for provisional license? Your answer is as good as mine.
Yes, I am aware the Regulatory Bodies Act makes mention of provisional registration. Section 10 of PART 1, section 34 of PART 2, section 63 of PART 3 for the AHPC, the MDC and the NMC respectively all make mention of provisional registration, but strangely, none of the MDC, the NMC and the Pharmacy Council charges its prospective professionals for provisional registration except the AHPC. why the difference?.
The truth be said, the system that revolves around the license acquisition is sucking too much from the youth and needs to be rechecked.
The young prospective AH professionals are willing to work to earn a living through the service we render, but the system that is supposed to cater for us is suffocating us.
If the system is rechecked, it will save us the amount for the provisional license and we will genuinely find mechanisms to electronically renew our PIN at a lesser amount.
The prospective AH professional should not be asphyxiated in the system he/she serves, after all, the payroll is full. Let us save the little we have for something else.
Let's communication at the comment section if you see no relevance in the provisional license and equally advocate fo its elimination from the process.
A CONCERNED PROSPECTIVE ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.
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