The Ghana Society of Radiographers has threatened a court action to resist a move by the Ghana Health Service to employ bio-medical engineers who have been trained for only 10 days to operate some digital X-ray equipment installed across the country.

The Society says the act constitutes an illegality and could also compromise the quality of healthcare delivery in the country if not reversed.

In a press statement dated April 22, 2019 and signed by National President Prince Rockson, the radiographers fear the consequences of the action could be dire.

“I wish to draw the attention of the general public to an illegal act the Ghana Health Service (GHS) with other stakeholders (Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA), Radiation Protection Institute (RPI), National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) and Universal DELFT) are in the process of undertaking which will be detrimental to the health care system of this country,” the statement read.

Recounting the genesis of the matter, the radiographers said the National Tuberculosis Programme manager had informed them as far back as 2016 about the deployment of digital X-ray equipment to Ghana for the Tuberculosis (TB) case detection project.

According to them, the project had not factored in human resource to man the machine until the equipment started arriving, when the “GHS quickly went to the NRA to grant them a waiver to enable them train anybody of whatever background in only radiation safety”.

They said the move did not sit down well with them since they are the professionals in that field, so they engaged the Director General of the GHS who agreed that 45 radiographers be submitted “for onward submission to the Ministry of Finance for financial clearance,” but only two sailed through.

It, however, later emerged in August 2018 that some biomedical engineers were shortlisted to be trained for 10 days to do the work of licensed allied health practitioners who have undergone rigorous training in accredited universities for 4 years, something the radiographers resisted.

The project, according to them, was halted until April this year when financial clearance was given for 20 radiographers and 24 for biomedical engineers through the effort of GHS.

But the radiographers do not see why biomedical engineers should be trained for only 10 days to do a job only qualified and licensed radiographers should be doing.

The radiographers are therefore cautioning “to be wary of places they undergo x-rays examinations, including government hospitals, and advise everybody to do due diligence by finding out whether the personnel is qualified and licensed by the Allied Health Professions Council to practice”.

Meanwhile, they have petitioned the Ministry of Health and the Attorney General on the matter.