The Federation of Ghana Medical Students Associations (FGMSA) and a group of affected graduating medical and dental students have instituted legal action at the High Court of Justice, Human Rights Division, Accra, seeking to restrain the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) from conducting the newly introduced Common Registration Examination (CRE).
In a writ filed this week, the students are asking the court for an interlocutory injunction to prevent the MDC from conducting the examination pending the determination of the substantive legal issues before the court.
According to FGMSA, the court action follows several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the matter through engagement with the MDC and other relevant authorities.
BACKGROUND TO THE ACTION
The legal action is the climax of months of agitation over the CRE.
The MDC, in a letter dated April 18, 2026, with Ref. MDC/20/V1/165, announced that the CRE would commence in 2026, setting out examination periods, eligibility and implementation arrangements.
Under the framework, locally-trained graduates are required to pass the CRE within a maximum of five attempts within three years after graduation, with the first attempt within one year.
The FGMSA, which represents more than 6,000 medical and dental students across Ghana, says it supports the MDC’s objective of ensuring consistent national standards but questions the need for another stand-alone examination where competencies can already be established through final qualifying examinations.
In a statement on October 1, 2026, FGMSA President Samuel A. Issifu said: “Our concern is not with standards. It is with duplication.”
The Federation argues that Ghana must have a medical education system in which the competence of every graduate can be trusted, irrespective of institution, but contends that this should be achieved by harmonising and strengthening final qualifying examinations rather than adding another exam.
Its proposals include common national competency standards and assessment blueprints, harmonised final qualifying examinations, standardised OSCE structures and scoring, examiner training and calibration, and stronger external moderation and deeper MDC participation.
FGMSA also raised legal questions over the framework under the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857), citing Section 27(f), which empowers the MDC to conduct registration examinations for locally trained practitioners who do not meet prescribed conditions, and Section 30, which provides for passing or exemption from a prescribed examination as a qualification for registration.
The students say the CRE will have academic, financial and psychological consequences, including possible delays in progression to housemanship, and have questioned: “What additional competency is the separate CRE intended to establish that a properly harmonised, nationally benchmarked and effectively MDC-supervised final qualifying examination cannot establish?”
FGMSA says it previously wrote formally to the MDC requesting dialogue, but that request had not resulted in the audience sought, and that it plans to petition the President, the Minister for Health and Parliament’s Select Committee on Health.
The Federation maintains that its position is not resistance to regulation. “We are not asking Ghana to assess its future doctors and dentists less rigorously. We are asking Ghana to assess them more coherently,” Issifu stressed.
GMSA remains committed to protecting the interests of medical and dental students and will pursue the legal process to its conclusion. Further updates will be communicated through the Federation’s official channels.
By Sampson Kumah Ifeetwube Elvis
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