The Doctor of Pharmacy Programme or PharmD as it is popularly called is a professional doctorate pharmacy programme that involves 6 years of training in an accredited institution which enables one to become a licensed pharmacist by the Pharmacy Council of Ghana (in this case) or an approved body (which is country specific) in order to work in the clinical space.
The PharmD students who graduate go on to write a licensure exam before being qualified to be posted for houseman ship that usually lasts one year which is mandatory in order to work as a licensed pharmacist in Ghana.
However, the already arduous training journey has been fraught with extra hurdles such as lack of appointment letters and lack of remuneration for the past 7 months (thus for the current batch who started work on 24th January, 2022).
In fact, that has allegedly been the order of the day since the first graduating batch of 2018 PharmD house officers started work and both their appointment letters and salaries were delayed.
Speaking to Dr. Mizero Hope Florence and another PharmD house officer who chooses to remain anonymous, the following information below was gathered about the alleged situation on the ground – 1.
The current Doctor of Pharmacy House officers were issued a letter from the Pharmacy Council concerning mandatory houseman ship for newly qualified pharmacists in accordance with Section 85 and 86 of the Health Professionals Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857) that talks about the mandatory 12-month houseman ship at accredited hospitals in Ghana for those who have completed their 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy Programme and passed the Ghana Pharmacy Professional Qualifying Examination.
The letter further states that the registered pharmacists have been posted to do their houseman ship from the 24th of January, 2022 to the 24th of January, 2023. 2. Assurances were allegedly given by the Pharmacy Council that the appointment letters of the qualified pharmacists would be available soon but this has not materialized. Hence there does not seem to be any hope that the salaries would arrive soon since the appointment letters have not even been issued. 3.
According to my sources, there have not been interventions to provide stipends for the house officers in order to support them in their daily activities. The director of one institution allegedly says it is not possible for stipends to be given out because that would mean singling that group out which is not justifiable.
Some institutions also started giving allowances but withdrew due to the lack of appointment letters meaning that the PharmD house officers are technically not recognized by the institution they work for without these appointment letters. 4.The previous batch of PharmD house officers also allegedly struggled to get their appointment letters and also get paid but their appointment letters arrived before 7 months. 5. PharmD house officers get appointment letters from Ministry of health with financial clearance from Ministry of Finance and are allegedly remunerated by the Controller and Accountants General’s Department (CAGD).
It is alleged that some PharmD students were made to pay some amounts of money to ensure that their names appear on the Ministry of Health payroll. 6. There has not been a strike by the house officers yet. The group has tried engaging bodies governing the pharmacy practice – Pharmacy council, pharmaceutical society of Ghana and the young Pharmacists group.
The pharmacy director in Ministry of Health was allegedly in attendance of previous meetings but not much has been done to alleviate their plight. The house-officers were told that the situation was being worked on but no results have been seen so far. 7.
For foreign students/house officers, the PharmD house officers that belong to this group were allegedly informed by the Pharmacy council that they would receive no remuneration for the houseman ship period since they are not Ghanaians. The foreign house officers were allegedly told that it is either they forget about being allowed to write their licensure exam alongside their houseman ship training or they do their houseman ship without pay. 8. The job description of the PharmD house officer is the same as that of the clinical Pharmacist and the average PharmD house officer works for about 40hours per week with weekend and night shifts inclusive depending on the department in which one belongs to. In my opinion, it is not only inhumane to force an individual to work without pay but it is also against the labour laws of Ghana. Furthermore, the practice of allegedly forcing foreign PharmD house officers to work without pay is unfair since foreign house officers (Medical Doctors) qualified to work in Ghana get paid for their work and this practice seems xenophobic.
By Dr. Naa Adzoa Adzeley Boi-Dsane
