Doctors Trained in Ukraine Won’t be Recognized In Ghana – Medical and Dental Council

The Medical and Dental Council of Ghana says it will no longer recognize degree certificates issued by medical schools from Ukraine because some schools have resorted to studying online, which falls short of the required training process.

The council is therefore urging students who are currently studying medicine and dentistry in Ukraine to take advantage of the government’s intervention to continue their training in Ghana.

The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala, said his outfit would not compromise the standards of the profession.

“Training to be a doctor must be in accordance with established strategies. Will potential patients be happy to be treated by a doctor who was trained online? We have to take our public interest responsibility seriously. The point is, what is the kind of training that is acceptable in the world? If it is not standard, then, I am afraid, this regulator will not give any stamp of approval,” he said on Citi TV on September 24.

Ghana is not the only country implementing such a policy after foreign students were forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion in February.

In June 2022, the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council (MDCN) said Nigeria would not accept medical and dental degrees obtained from Ukrainian universities in 2022.

They expressed similar observations to their Ghanaian counterparts, insisting that students who acquired their certificates through online studies could not be accpeted as full-fledged professionals due to their lack of practical experience.

The directive is likely to affect over 451 Ghanaian students who were evacuated from Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February.

Meanwhile, the government has put in measures to help such students.

For example,  the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, said Ghanaian medical students in Ukrainian schools who were displaced because of the war would be admitted into Ghanaian universities to complete their programmes.

According to the minister who was responding to questions in Parliament, a committee chaired by the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Nsiah Asare, had been set up, and the affected students were identified.

He explained that the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) is conducting an audit of the list, after which eligible students will be admitted into Ghanaian medical schools.