The Association of Medicine Counter Assistants, Ghana (AMCAG) will on Saturday, July 8, 2017 hold its 7th Annual General Meeting (AGM) to discuss issues concerning the pharmaceutical industry and the health sector as a whole.
The meeting is expected to bring together over 2000 registered Medicine Counter Assistants (MCAs) across the country to dialog, share ideas, knowledge and experience about the noble profession.
Kingsley Agbeko, MCAs’ National Public Relation Officer (PRO) in an interview said the programme would be held at Christ the King Parish Hall under the theme “Positioning the MCA as pharmaceutical healthcare provider”.
He said the theme was carefully chosen to promulgate the important roles MCAs play in the pharmaceutical industry to facilitate healthcare delivery.
Listing duties performed by MCAs to ensure total healthcare, he said: “we dispense over counter at the pharmacy, offer basic health education to patients under the supervising of pharmacist any other duties that improve the pharmacy industry.”
Mr. Abgeko said the association founded in 2010 to see to the welfare of its registered members, check how they conduct themselves at pharmacy and provide in service training for members.
The MCAs, he explained as persons who have completed a prescribed training programme to assist other members of the pharmaceutical care team to provide ultimate pharmaceutical care to patient by performing various duties in accordance with the 1994 Act 489 and regulations prescribed by the pharmacy council.
This, he said the work of the MCAs has founded important part of pharmaceutical industry and as a result they work in various capacities in community chemical shops, pharmacies, and clinics across the country.
He used the opportunity to call on the pharmacy council to revise the Medicine Counter Assistants programme to enable the members to further their education in that respect.
This, he noted will enable the members to upgrade themselves to offer a more professional service to patients to the total goal of the country.
AMCAG National PRO urged the pharmacy council should not see the MCAs as a threat but consider them as partners in the industry, helping to lift the image of the profession high.