“The leadership of the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists wish to bring to the attention of your honourable office and other stakeholders that its members cannot continue to provide anesthesia services effective 1st January 2022,” the Association said in a letter addressed to the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu.

The group said the industrial action was due to the Ministry of Health’s failure to address its concerns of changing the title of members from ‘Physician Assistants’ to ‘Certified Registered Anaesthetists’.

It said the Ministry of Health’s decision “implies that CRAs shall not be illegible to practice anaesthesia by law and are not prepared to renew their license with the MDC as congress resolved in the 3rd Annual General Congress and Scientific Session held in Kumasi on 1st – 4th December.”

The Association said the Medical and Dental Council had also refused to extend the certificates of its members thus they will not be able to legally practice.

“The CRAs loved to serve their cherished clients, and the good people of Ghana as law-abiding citizens, but the circumstance we find ourselves in will render the CRA ineligible to practice. The unfortunate development which shall have grave repercussions on our health delivery system should be blamed on the Ministry of Health and the MDC.”

Anaesthetists are known as advanced practice nurses who administer anaesthesia for surgery or other medical procedures.

They work in collaboration with surgeons, anaesthesiologists, dentists, podiatrists, and other professionals to ensure the safe administration of Anaesthesia.

Anaesthesia is the administration of medication to allow medical procedures to be done without pain, and in some cases, without the patient being aware during the procedure.