Unlicensed Practitioners Filling the Gap: OHPAG President Warns of Risks in Oral Health Services

This is because, some health centers are forced to seek the services of unregistered oral health professional since there is a shortage of government postings of license practitioners.

Thousands of trained oral health professionals since 2019 have been unable to secure financial clearance, said by Shaibu Issifu, President of the Oral Health Professionals Association of Ghana (OHPAG). Issifu described how existing staffing in oral health was increasingly exerted, and made worse by post COVID-19 emigration, which had left many dental clinics inadequately staffed. In this regard, some facilities have been hiring non-professionals to attend to clients’ demand an acts contrary to the provisions of Act 857 of 2012.

Since in Ghana poor oral health and dental diseases such as periodontal disease and dental caries are very rampant having affected nearly half the population, Issifu underscored the need to place and utilize these trained personnel.

Some of the activities range from; obtaining patient information, administering preoperative and routine dental surgeries, assisting the surgeons and managing patients after surgeries. These are qualified government-trained and licensed professionals, who for the past five years have been awaiting placement, unlike other health sectors such as nursing that has been receiving financial clearance many times, for instance in 2020/2024.

This, according to Issifu, unfair to some health trainee groups, is due to injustice by the Ministry of Health. OHPAG calls on the government to address the financial clearance issues to employ these professionals noting that recruitment of these professionals is needed to support SDG 3; especially targets 4 and 8. It would go a long way in deeming dental health assistance on a human resource level in the Oral health of Ghanas people and by extension Ghana.