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The Ghana Medical and Dental Council (MDC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Physicians and Surgeons Foundation of North America (GPSF) to facilitate the licensing process of Ghanaian physicians based in the US who want to practise in Ghana.
The MoU, which was signed at the 19th annual GPSF Conference in Washington, DC, last week, will also help address the GPSF’s funding mandate to provide educational and faculty support for the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The Registrar of the MDC, Dr Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, and the President of the GPSF, Dr Bertha Serwa Ayi, initialed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
The MoU comes after years of discussions between the GPSF and the MDC to clear bottlenecks in the credentialing and licensing process of US-based Ghanaian physicians, as well as other physicians with vested interest in postgraduate medical education in Ghana.
Present at the ceremony were the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie; the Ranking Member of the committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh; the outgoing President of the GPSF, Dr Afua Nyanin, among others.
Formalising agreement
At an event to formalise the agreement in Accra yesterday, Dr Banyubala said the MoU would cover other physicians with interest in postgraduate medical education in the country.
As a result, he said, there had been a reduction in the cost of licensing by 50 per cent.
“Another provision is the waiver of examination in certain special situations for selected US-based physicians. This expedited process will be provided through membership with the GPSF,” Dr Banyubala added.
Importance
The Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Richard Adanu, said the MoU was a key step to improving access for US-based physicians to take key roles in training and education at the college.
The President of the GPSF, Dr Bertha Serwa Ayi, pledged the commitment of her outfit to the agreement and expressed the hope that it would benefit both institutions by improving the training of health practitioners.
She expressed appreciation to the MDC and the college for making the long-term goal a reality.
For his part, Dr Afriyie welcomed the decision of all stakeholders in arriving at the signing of the agreement.
