The Ministry of Health has secured financial clearance to employ 3,456 allied health professionals from the end of the year 2020 to 2021.
According to the Registrar of the Allied Health Profession Council, Dr Samuel Yaw Opoku, very soon the Council would open its portal to allow the registration of graduates who were yet to be employed by the government.
Dr Opoku announced this when he was addressing the induction and oath swearing ceremony for 760 Allied Health Graduates in Kumasi, under the theme; “The role of the Allied Health Professional during and post COVID-19.”
He said the theme for the occasion was timely considering the various roles allied health professionals have played in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 virus which has claimed the lives of some people.
In view of the importance of their various roles, Dr Opoku noted that, the concerns of allied health professions should always attract the needed attention and be treated with the importance it deserved.
He advised the graduates to take the period of their internships which starts on October 5, 2020, to the end of September 2021 seriously, since they were at the second stage of their career development.
Dr Poku urged the graduates to maintain good working standards and accept postings to any part of the country they would be posted to because they were trained to serve and protect the people regardless of where they found themselves working.
He again advised them to use the appropriate ways in solving grievances instead of resorting to strikes, demonstrations and picketing.
Adding his voice to the call, the Board Chairman of the Council, Professor Augustine Kyere, appealed to graduates not to be choosy in postings as poor and vulnerable people were likely to suffer the implication of their actions.
Prof. Kyere again advised them to shy away from bad habits that could be addictive and could affect their service delivery to the people they would be serving.
The ceremony was the fifth held across the country to induct graduates to serve as interns for one year in various health facilities across the country.
Out of the 760 diploma graduates, 205 were nutrition technical officers, 13 prosthetics and orthotics technicians, 98 optical dispensing technicians, 102 physiotherapy technicians, 162 health information technical officers, 199 disease control officers and 60 dental surgery technicians.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI