Professor David McQuoid-Mason of UKZN’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies conducted a follow-up Medical Law and Ethics workshop for health professionals in Ghana.

The workshop was organised by the Ghana Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (GIALS), an affiliate of the London Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

After the workshop, Acting Director of GIALS Mr Victor Chimbwanda and group of doctors who attended the workshop suggested to McQuoid-Mason that GIALS collaborates with the UKZN School of Law to offer the LLM in Medical Law through distance learning.

McQuoid-Mason undertook to raise this with UKZN’s Dean of the Law School, Professor Managay Reddi, on his return to South Africa.

During the workshop, McQuoid-Mason drew on the experience of Dr Isaac Morrison, a leading Ghanaian medical practitioner, who had attended a previous workshop conducted by McQuoid-Mason. Morrison has registered for an LLM in Medical Law at UKZN next year.

The workshop involved discussions of decided cases and presentations to inform participants about medico-legal issues relating to the legal and ethical liability of medical professionals, nurses and medical administrators. McQuoid-Mason also reminded the gathering that medical malpractice and professional negligence could result in criminal and civil liability as well as disciplinary action by the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana.

The Ghana Medical Association, the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana and the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana are also keen to receive further training on medical and health care issues to increase awareness of medico-legal matters, ethics and health law in general.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana had recently met with a representative of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative for Africa to discuss programmes, and indicated they were interested in collaborating with the GIALS and the Street Law division of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies to run workshops on the Crimes against Women and Children and Democracy for all programmes organised by Street Law. McQuoid-Mason undertook to follow-up with Chimbwanda regarding the initiatives.

Words: NdabaOnline
Photograph: Supplied