About 40 radiologists from across Ghana are expected to converge in the Central Regional capital, Cape Coast this week.

The doctors are climaxing weeks-long of activities with their fourth Annual General Meeting in Cape Coast.

They are taking steps to improve the growing field of radiotherapy and other related services in the country’s health delivery system.

President of the Ghana Association of Radiologists, Dr Edmund Brakohiapa said, before 1999, Ghana had only four radiologists – three in Accra, one in Kumasi.

Given the numbers, he said, it was practically difficult to get examination and interpretation of medical reports because it took a week to do so and clinicians couldn’t possibly wait for a week before treating patients.

This he said created a situation where Radiology wasn’t emphasized in healthcare delivery in Ghana.

But that is changing now, Dr. Brakohiapa asserted, adding Radiology is taking its rightful place now.

“It is now possible to get your results in an hour,” he stressed.

He told Joy FM’s Nhyira Addo on Ultimate Health that the Association of radiologists “Thought we needed to come together to streamline how to enhance training, find better ways to get trained, get greater voice, regulate the practice so that patients who are not too aware of who a radiologist is,” will be adequately informed.

Dr. Brakohiapa, who is also a lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School, expressed concerns about quacks in the field of radiology.

“We have so many people in town doing all sorts of scans, some even report X-rays and they are not qualified…So the association was formed with the aim of protecting the patients and also to promote the education of radiologist to better protect patients,” he stated.

The Head of the Radiology Department of the police Hospital, Dr. Francis Ofei, explained that “Radiologists are medical doctors who use imaging techniques such as X-rays, CT scans, Ultrasound scan etc to treat health conditions.”

He said Radiology has become increasingly critical in the delivery of healthcare, making the AGM and the associated activities necessary.

The theme for the AGM, slated for March 3 to 6, 2016 is, “Current trends in interventional radiology, pediatric raDDdiology and radiation safety.”

Explaining the essence of focusing on Pediatric radiology at the GMA, Dr. Ofei said, “children are very vulnerable and delicate and so the kind of radiation that you expose an adult to you wouldn’t want to expose a child to.”

He said the radiologists converging at the Pempamsie Hotel in Cape Coast will be “Looking at how to fashion radiology to benefit children without harming them in the long run.”

According to Dr. Ofei, the first day of the AGM will be a forum for doctors who are not radiologists, and nurses and radiographers.

The forum will be used to teach them how to “interpret chest X-rays, lumbar spine X-rays and basic steps in carrying out ultrasound scans so doctors and in Cape Coast and those in Accra can register,” he said.