Response to my piece ‘Postgraduate medical training in Ghana: Who are we deceiving?’ by a Ghanaian Obstetrician Gynaecologist in the UK
I find this whole issue bewildering and to some extent petty. Maybe I do not fully understand how the system works with Members and Fellows of the College in Ghana.
In the UK, Members of the RCOG can train specialist trainees and do train them. I did such training at the highest level as a Member for 10 years before I became a Fellow. There are some top doctors in the specialty in the UK who are only Members and not Fellows. Is it not the quality of the training that should really matter as long as the trainer has met some basic requirements required for the role.
I was trained in Ventouse Delivery not by an accredited trainer but by a midwife at Suhum Hospital. She was that good. And the medical officer at Suhum Hospital trusted her to do the training because he knew how good practically, the midwife was.
When I rotated through District Hospitals in the UK, I had excellent operating experience. In three hospitals, I did a minimum of three major gynaecological procedure a week. Multiply that by three years. I returned to the teaching hospital coincidentally when I was preparing for my membership exam. There, the academic side of training was enhanced but I was fortunate if I got to a major operation in two months!
There were so many of us at different levels of training so that was fair but I did not lose out because of the experience in the Districts. There is a time and a place for the training programme and good training should not be denied trainees simply because the trainer who has proven his worth is only a Member.
Maybe the Fellows and Members designation mean something different in Ghana but I find it all bizarre.
So, Kofi, when will you be a Fellow so you get to officially train specialists-in-training?
I don’t get it. Is there a catch somewhere?
