Freedom of Association? : Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) is a PROFESSIONAL BODY!

The statement in the good book, “For lack of knowledge, my people perish”, jumps to me anytime I hear people say joining Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) is by choice” and it is just like joining any association like Kalabule People’s Group of Merchants (KPGM, creation is mine).

The Professional Bodies Registration ACT – 1973 (NRCD 143) gives the decree by which all professional bodies in Ghana are to be registered. Section 6 of the ACT tells of which bodies may be registered. What is interesting to note is that in Section 10, “The Registrar shall not register more than one professional body in respect of any one profession.”

In Ghana, Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) is the ONLY Professional Body registered with registration number PB 2 for people trained to practice the medical laboratory trade and for “maintaining and advancing a code of ethics and conduct among its members and generally for the maintenance of the highest ideals of the profession” as given in the ACT.

What people do not know is that the Professional Body has the mandate by law to (a) set the objects of the body,

 (b) makes rules regulating discipline of members of the profession in question and the manner of enforcing such rules.

Section 15 of the ACT further elaborates how the Professional body relates to the Council responsible for it regulation. The law states that “(1) A professional body registered under this Decree may, after consultation with the Council, make rules and regulations governing the admission and the code of ethics of its members compatible with its traditions including rules and regulations providing for the ceasing of a person to be a member of the profession.

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Again, the same Section 15 describes how the Professional Body could decide on admitting a person to a membership status, suspend a member or refuse to restore a person’s membership.

This presupposes that currently, the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC) is to get the Professional Body (GAMLS) to attest to members before they are granted the license to practice or even renew their license for practising annually.

This particular law which was repealed but got restored in 1979 is still in force and must be respected by all. Professional Bodies are not like any association that one joins by choice. If you decide to practice in Ghana a particular profession, the law enjoins you to be part of the respective professional body.

When this education goes down well, people will not out of convenience decide to form their own associations. The laws will forever protect Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Ghana Medical Association (GMA), and all the other professional Bodies that are recognized as the only Professional Bodies responsible for the ethical codes of practising the chosen trade.

You are allowed to form an association but such can never be considered as a Professional Body as far as one exists already for a similar profession. Let’s not be deceived. A word to the wise, …….