Former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, has highlighted the issue of negligence in supervisory duties as the reason behind the current calls by physician assistants to become an independent body.
He emphasized that lack of engagement with this group of health practitioners and failure to provide direction in their work has caused agitation among them.
Prof Badu Akosa believes that physician assistants have been allowed to work independently for too long without proper supervision, leading to their demand for autonomy.
He urged health institutions to engage regularly with physician assistants, discussing their challenges and providing informed directions to ensure proper supervision.
“If you don’t do supervision and you allow them to work independently, then you have a problem.”
“But if you choose not to do that and you leave them to do their work, now they’re sitting down and saying ‘we don’t need to be supervised’. But how can an assistant not be supervised?,” he said.
“So it’s the failure of supervision that has caused that,” he stated.
The Physician Assistants Association is currently on a nationwide strike, claiming unfair treatment and disrespect.
They demand changes to Act 857 governing health professionals’ bodies to grant them the freedom to operate independently.
As a result of the strike, healthcare services in some rural hospitals are suffering, as physician assistants are refusing to work. Nurses in these facilities are struggling to attend to patients, leading to referrals for most cases.
The National Labour Commission (NLC) has called for a meeting with the disputing parties, but the physician assistants’ leader, Anthony Asare Arkoh, states that the strike will only end if the Health Ministry responds favorably to their demands.
They seek assurances from the government that their requests will be met before considering ending the strike.