{
  "id": 3069218,
  "title": "President Mahama calls for stronger health regulation to protect patients and advance universal health coverage",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/president-mahama-calls-for-stronger-health-regulation-to-protect",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-24T16:34:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GBC Ghana",
    "slug": "gbc-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/general/mahama-health-regulation/2026/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "President John Dramani Mahama has urged for stronger, responsive and coordinated health professional regulation across Africa to safeguard patients, bolster public trust and push towards universal health coverage. At the 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra, the President emphasized that universal health coverage must extend beyond hospitals, insurance, medicines and the number of trained health workers. He highlighted that \"coverage without safety is incomplete, access without quality can cause harm, and health systems without public trust cannot endure.\"\n\nMahama stressed that regulation should not be viewed as a bureaucratic hurdle but as a vital tool for public safety, patient protection and healthcare confidence. He stated that each professional license issued by a regulator signifies a commitment to the public that the practitioner has undergone proper training, fair assessment, registration and adherence to clear professional and ethical standards. He warned that Africa's healthcare landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by population growth, evolving disease patterns, rising non-communicable diseases, increased mobility of health professionals, and the rapid growth of digital health, telemedicine and artificial intelligence. These advancements present opportunities but also new risks that regulators must be equipped to manage.\n\nThe President called for more responsive regulation, urging it to adapt to technological changes, emerging health threats and the cross-border movement of health professionals. Key challenges requiring stronger regulatory cooperation across Africa were identified, including patient protection during conflicts and humanitarian crises, health workforce migration, digital health and artificial intelligence, fraudulent credentials and professional impersonation, and health security. Mahama shared Ghana's experience with a digital medical records provider that ceased operations after repeatedly demanding extra payments, illustrating the risks of over-reliance on digital systems and questioning data ownership, system reliability and accountability.\n\nArtificial intelligence must aid, not supplant, professional judgment and human responsibility, Mahama stressed. Africa should actively contribute to establishing standards and developing technologies that accurately represent African populations. He urged stronger collaboration among African regulators to combat forged qualifications, fake licenses, professional impersonation and unlawful medical practice, emphasizing that no country should become a sanctuary for sanctioned practitioners from other nations. Secure, lawful and timely information sharing among regulatory authorities was advocated.\n\nOn Ghana's health agenda, Mahama outlined efforts to expand the National Health Insurance Scheme, aiming to cover 90 per cent of the population, and launched the Free Primary Healthcare Programme in approximately 160 districts, with the goal of covering the remaining districts. The programme focuses on preventive care and underserved communities, providing services at CHPS compounds, mobile health kiosks and other designated facilities at no cost to beneficiaries. He also introduced the Ghana Medical Trust Fund to shield individuals with chronic and high-cost conditions from financial ruin and reiterated his call for African health sovereignty. Ghana currently imports about 70 per cent of its medicine supply and has a five-year plan to increase local production to at least 70 per cent. Mahama urged the conference to focus on practical outcomes such as enhanced regulatory cooperation, improved information sharing, capacity building and actionable policy recommendations. He stressed that \"universal health coverage cannot exist without universal health confidence,\" asserting that citizens must be assured that the professionals attending to them, whether in a clinic, hospital or via a digital platform, are competent, ethical and accountable. He called on policymakers to equip regulators with the necessary legal authority, institutional independence, resources and technological capacity to fulfill their duties effectively. Finally, Mahama declared the 28th Annual International Conference of AMCOA officially open.",
  "summary": "By Celestine Avi and Seth Eyiah President John Dramani Mahama has called for stronger, responsive and coordinated health professional regulation across Africa to protect patients, strengthen public confidence and advance the continent’s goal of universal health coverage. Addressing the 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}