The Faculty of Law of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has launched a journal, “the KNUST Africa Healthcare Law Review (K-AHLR)”. The Journal which is being established as an authoritative source of reference for policy makers, judges, academics, lawyers, legal and medical practitioners, law students and anyone interested in healthcare and the law to help the exchange of views between healthcare players as well as bioethicists in Africa.
The K-AHLR was launched by Dr. Ernest Owusu-Dapaa, Head of the Department of Commercial Law, KNUST, at the maiden Law, Medicine and Ethics Conference hosted by the Medical Law Students of the Faculty of Law. The Conference was on the theme: “The Beginning and End of Life: A Discourse on Legal and Ethical issues in Ghana.”
Launching the Journal, Dr. Owusu-Dapaa said the Journal would publish information on the activities of regional as well as sub-regional bodies and other international orgainsations in the field of healthcare law. It will also feature national legislation, law review articles, abstracts, selected legislation, judicial decisions and book review among others.
The K-AHLR would have Professor Kartina Choong of University of Central Lancashire, Professor Festus Emeli of Delta State University, Nigeria and Dr. Kwadwo Appiagyei Atua from University of Ghana as Consulting Editors.
Professor Mrs. Lydia Apori Nkansah, Dean of the Faculty of Law in her address, said recognizing the need of the law to respond to the dynamics of scientific and technological advances in medical sciences as well as social emergencies of the times, the Faculty of Law introduced the study of medical law as a course at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Mrs. Nkansah noted that this is necessary in order to shift the frontiers of law to inform the policy directives to accommodate advances in medical sciences whilst maintaining societal values consistent with the African culture.
Dr. Ernest Owusu Dapaa, Convenor of the Conference, said the conference is a platform to be part of an important conversation evolving in recent times in the country. He said the ad hoc and piecemeal discussion of issues pertaining to healthcare and medical practice in Ghana as carried by the media are mostly reports on failings and scandals in our healthcare system and medical practice especially malpractices and abuses.
Dr. Owusu Dapaa said with the burgeoning incidence of clinical negligence and exploitation of patient vulnerability, there should be a dedicated platform for a structured conversation which could result in policy recommendations.
Dr. Owusu Dapaa said the Public Health Act (Act 851 of patients) which also incorporates the Ghana Health Service Patients Charter as a compendium of patient rights and repeals the old disparate statutes on public health is not sufficiently empowering from the patient’s perspective.
He further said it also does not provide any administrative body in the form of a Patients Ombudsman for monitoring or secure compliance with the Charter. Dr. Owusu Dapaa therefore called on government and all stakeholders to conduct investigations into patients’ experiences to address fundamental issues affecting clinical safety and accountability.
The Conference saw presentations on Doctor-Patient Relationship, Human Tissue Donation, Transplantation and Assisted Dying, Human Reproduction and Assisted Reproduction, Surrogacy, Organ Procurement among others.