101 Pharmacists inducted

pg. 14. Friday May 2/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

One hundred and one newly qualified and registered pharmacists were inducted into the Pharmacy Council at a ceremony in Accra on Wednesday.
The new pharmacists underwent six years of academic and internship training programmes during their period of education.
The ceremony, on the theme: “Optimising pharmaceutical workforce for national development”, brought together health professionals from both the public and private institutions, as well as relatives and well-wishers of the inductees.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer Buckle, who was the special guest, in a speech read on his behalf exhorted the pharmacists to use their newly acquired knowledge and expertise to help improve the lot of their fellow men and women.
He said Ghana after 50 years was at a very crucial point in its history of nation building and as such needed such experts who would improve the lot of its people.
“I am almost convinced that most of us have turned our education and acquisition of skills and expertise into tools of exploitation and power instead of means of service and enhancement of the lives of the people of this nation,” the Rev Palmer Buckle said.
Most Rev Palmer Buckle noted that “it is very sad that quite often, it is those of us, the educated ones, that use the knowledge we have acquired to exploit our own kith and kin, making them poorer than before”, and advised the new pharmacists to “think Ghana and thank God for Ghana every day, love Ghana and live for Ghana everywhere, pray for Ghana and protect Ghana at all times, serve Ghana and save Ghana now, devote yourselves to Ghana and die for Ghana a little today”.
The Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), who was represented by the Chief Director of the ministry, Lepowura Mohammed Nurudeen D. Jawula, said the new health policy, which emphasises on prevention and health promotion, demanded that pharmacists took central roles in patient management.
He said with the increasing number of chronic conditions to be managed, pharmacists in the public and private sector had become more and more involved in patient management even outside the hospital.
He challenged the newly inducted pharmacists to maintain high levels of dedication and to build on the achievements of their senior colleagues.
The Greater Accra Regional branch President of the society, Mr John Allotey, called on the new pharmacists to be guided by the three principles adopted by the society, which, he said, were image building, public health and international collaboration.
He also called on them to work as professionals no matter where they found themselves.
In a welcoming address, the Registrar of the council, Mr Joseph Nyoagbe, said the council would continue to ensure that the standards of pharmacy practise was maintained through appropriate interventions of monitoring and inspections.
He added that access to medicine without a corresponding availability of trained practitioners would not achieve much.
To complement this, the council has come out with a policy to ensure that all pharmaceutical service providers acquire some level of training and added that eight institutions had been accredited to train medicine counter assistants and that the institutions had so far trained 763 people.
He said the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had provided a level playing field that had made health care available to all irrespective of one’s status in society.
Three of the pharmacists who excelled during their training were honoured. Ms Whitney Sena Assor was adjudged the overall best candidate and was presented with the ‘John Ocran Award’, which is sponsored by the Pharmacy Council in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana and the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacies.