The 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) opened in Accra with a resounding message from Dr. Divine N. Banyubala, Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Dr. Banyubala underscored the indispensable role of health professional regulation in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Ghana and across the continent.
This year’s conference, themed “Responsive Regulation for Safer Communities towards Universal Health Coverage,” brought together over 350 delegates at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel from August 23-27, 2026. The gathering aims to strengthen regulatory frameworks to ensure safer, more accountable healthcare for all Africans.
Dr. Banyubala drew a direct link between the conference theme and President John Dramani Mahama’s free primary healthcare policy. “Universal health coverage, as His Excellency the President eloquently laid out and anchored on his free primary health care policy, means there should be no barrier to access to care by anyone in Ghana,” he explained.
However, Dr. Banyubala cautioned that expanding access alone is not enough. “At the heart of it as regulators is not simply just expanding access. If you expand access and the care is not safe or that the practitioner providing the care is not properly trained or is not registered and licensed, or when there is misconduct with no accountability mechanism, then access in this sense may be harmful.”
He emphasized that regulation forms the foundation of quality and safe universal access. “We set standards for training, for practice, for entry into the profession, and for professional and ethical conduct. Where things do not go well, we have the statutory obligation to ensure accountability mechanisms work,” Dr. Banyubala noted.
According to the Registrar, health professional regulators are, above all, public interest regulators. “Our primary object is to protect the public, the patients. We are all potential patients, and so all of us have a role to play in health professional regulation in general.”
Dr. Banyubala concluded by reiterating that regulation is at the heart of the President’s free primary health care policy and is essential for ensuring universal access to quality, basic, and safe care for every Ghanaian.
As the AMCOA 2026 conference continues, delegates are set to deliberate on ways to make health regulation even more responsive, building safer communities and moving closer to the goal of universal health coverage.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com