The Ministry of Health has called the bluff of the new doctors who were trained in Cuba for the scrapping of the Board examination before their integration into the Ghana Health Service.
National Coordinator for Cuban Health Cooperation at the Ministry Dr. Hafiz Adam says cancellation will not be possible as the examination is the standard test for all qualified doctors who want to practice in Ghana.
The comment follows a request by the group of 221 Cuban-trained Ghanaian doctors for the mandatory examination to be scrapped to enhance their integration into the Ghana Health Service.
In a Citi News interview, Dr. Adam said “there is no way, the exams can be scrapped. In fact, the Ministry had hinted that they are preparing to even start exams for anyone irrespective of where they trained as doctors either locally or foreign-trained. Very soon there will be state exams such that when the doctors complete their training, they sit for the exams and they will be integrated if they qualify.”
The doctors do not want to write a Ghana Medical and Dental Council exams before being fully integrated into the Ghana Health Service.
The demand follows their arrival in the country years after their training in Cuba on the government scholarship.
The scheduled arrival of the doctors was the subject of controversy with calls from the Minority to get them fully integrated.
Some of them who spoke to Citi News shortly after their arrival in the country said the government should reconsider the writing of the examination.
“As newly trained medical doctors from Cuba, they have set that exam for us to write when we return to Ghana. But we have colleagues from other counties who also graduated with us but they have been incorporated in their health systems without writing any exams. We are not saying the exams is not important but we are saying that, they should find a way for us to just work.”
Another student also said, “Government invests money in students and it ends up losing half of them through the exams. I want to urge the government to find a better plan of inculcating us into the system. We are ready if we have done it for the Cuban government, why can’t we do it for our home country?”
