The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana, Dr. Divine N. Banyubala has underscored the critical role of health professional regulation in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra, Dr. Banyubala explained the significance of the conference theme: "Responsive Regulation for Safer Communities towards Universal Health Coverage”.

He linked the theme to President John Dramani Mahama's free primary healthcare policy which saying "the theme for the conference is responsive regulation for safer communities towards universal health coverage. And the importance is that universal health coverage, as His Excellency the President eloquently laid out...and anchored on his free primary health care policy, at the heart of it is that there should be no barrier to access to care by anyone in Ghana.”

According to him, while expanding access is central to UHC, regulators have a duty to ensure that access is safe and accountable.

“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 a misconduct...There is no accountability mechanism, then access in this sense may be harmful," he cautioned. 

Dr. Banyubala also explained that regulation is the bedrock upon which quality and safe universal access is built.

“So, the foundation of universal health care, universal access to health care is the regulator. Because we set standards for training. We then set standards for practice and how people enter the profession. Then they are registered. Then we have clear standards for professional and ethical practice arrangements and where things do not go well, we then have the responsibility, statutory obligation to ensure accountability mechanisms work," he stated.

He emphasised that health professional regulators are public interest regulators whose primary mandate is public protection.

“At the heart of it is that we are public interest regulators. What that means is that our primary object is to protect the public. Who are the public? The patients. And for a regulator, we are all potential patients.”

“So, all of us have a role to play in health professional regulation in general...So, regulation is the foundation to universal access to quality, basic, safe care and that is at the heart of His Excellency the President's three primary health care policies," Dr. Banyubala added.

The AMCOA 2026 conference, being hosted by the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel from August 23-27, has brought together over 350 delegates from medical and dental councils across Africa to deliberate on responsive regulation for safer communities.