Lack of teaching aids and manikins is putting medical teaching at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) at risk, Prof Baafour Opoku, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, has warned.

According to him, the situation is not the best at all, as medicine is an apprenticeship profession that requires trainees to be taken through clinical sections for them to have practical skills before they are taken to real patients at the wards.

He asserted that the apprenticeship sections were to make lecturers satisfied that the students being churned out are fit and qualified to come out and practice so as not to become a danger to society.

Speaking to DAILY GUIDE on the sidelines of a health walk by KNUST students of Medical Sciences at the weekend, Prof Opoku said he personally feels uncomfortable as a lecturer to take about 20 students to one patient for examination as part of student’s demonstration.

“We need teaching aids and manikins to teach the growing number of students for them to have practical skills before they are taken to the real patient. Medicine is an apprenticeship and not just reading and writing and passing exams,” the professor emphasized.

He continued… “You and I don’t know when we will land in the hands of our products, so we have to ensure that they are well equipped before they come out.”

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Prof Opoku disclosed that student population had grown from 38 in 1980s to 200 (on the average) in the present time without a corresponding increase of lecturers and classrooms, putting much stress on the training of will-be doctors.

On student accommodation, Prof Baafour Opoku said the number was limited, and that every year, the students had to ballot to know who will get accommodation.

“Those who couldn’t get accommodation have to find their own accommodation in town, and some students stay in compound houses at Ayeduase and Bantama and shuttle between there and the hospital for clinical section,” the consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist said.

He indicated that the situation had become so critical that while previously students were sleeping two in a room, they now sleep four in a room, yet some do not get accommodation.

The health walk formed part of activities marking the 40th anniversary celebration for the establishment of the Medical Sciences at the KNUST.