Pharmacists to get doctorate degrees

Saturday, April 4, 2009 (The Mirror)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has decided that from the year 2010, all undergraduates pursuing pharmacy degree in Ghana will graduate with a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm D) degree.
This is to equip them with additional skills in business and public health management to help improve healthcare delivery in the country.
The President of the society, Dr Alex Dodoo, who announced this at the opening of the 21st Annual General Meeting and Scientific Symposium of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP), said the move was also in line with global trends that require Pharm D as the minimum qualification for the practice of pharmacy.
He said since 2003, pharmacists in the USA had to graduate with a Pharm D and that similar initiatives were in the offering in the UK and Asia.
Dr Dodoo said the PSGH has gone a step further to ensure that graduates pass out with a combined doctor of Pharmacy and MBA or Doctor of Pharmacy and Masters in Public Health.
“Our dreams and aspirations for all the three pharmacy training institutions in Ghana is for them to offer the six-year PharmD/MBA or PharmD/MPH to equip all graduates with the skills and knowledge to meet the health needs of the people,” he said.
At the ceremony, seven Ghanaian pharmacists were elected as Fellows of the WAPCP.
They were Mrs Amah Nkansah, a specialist clinical pharmacist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Chief Pharmacist of the Ministry of Health, Mr James Kyei, Drs Charles Ansah, Eric Woode and Theophilus Fleischer, Senior Lecturers at KNUST, Mr Raymond Tetteh, a specialist clinical pharmacist and Dr Alex Dodoo, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana.
In addition, more than 80 other pharmacists from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia were also inducted as Fellows of the WAPCP.
Fellowship of the WAPCP is the highest professional award for pharmacists in the sub-region.
In an address, the Vice-President John D. Mahama, encouraged pharmacists to provide good services to ensure the success of the government health programmes including the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The Minister for Health, Dr George Adjah-Sipa Yankey, asked pharmacists to work to reduce the circulation and dispensing of counterfeit medicines and pledged the ministry’s support to pharmacists in the sub-region.