The Human Rights Court in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, has placed an injunction on this year’s licentiate exams for Physician Assistants, following a suit filed by students from the College of Health, Kintampo.

The 10-day order by the Court presided over by Justice Mrs. Ananda J. Aikins, was given after some 128 students from the College of Help, Kintampo, on Thursday, September 27, filed an ex parte motion for injunction on the licentiate examinations originally scheduled for Saturday, September 29.

The Court further restrained the defendants in the case- Ministry of Health, Medical and Dental College and College of Health and Well-being, Kintampo- from going ahead with the licentiate examinations without the participation of the aggrieved students.

Background

The 128 Physician Assistants from the Kintampo College of Health, an affiliate of the University of Cape Coast, were disqualified from participating in the 2018 examinations. The examination is supervised by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), over some issues relating to accreditation of their school.

The registration for the exams was closed on August 15, with Physician Assistants from the College of Health, Kintampo, raising several questions by the aggrieved students. The MDC later sent a delegation to the school and held meetings with stakeholders and subsequently gave the students the green light to register in a special arrangement from August 27 and September 3.

The students in their claim said they presented all documents to the Tamale Zonal office of the Council where the registrar, upon vetting their documents, asked them to pay GH₵ 630.00 each. They were later told to go and wait for their index numbers.

However, the affected students say they were shocked to learn from a text message from the MDC on Tuesday, September 25 –exactly four days to the exams- they have been excluded in the examinations. The students were further directed to the Council’s office in Accra for their letters.

Demands

Feeling betrayed, the aggrieved students demanded to know “How come the Council reopened registration for students from a school they don’t recognise? How come documents they vetted and approved and fees paid suddenly become unrecognized? How come a public institution under the MoH churns out students that are not recognised by the MDC which happens to also be an institution under the MOH?”

Feeling their future is in jeopardy as well as their rights being curtailed and trampled upon, the students, through their counsel placed an interim injunction on the licentiate exams schedule until the final determination of the suit.