The Human Rights Court 2 in Accra has granted an interim injunction restraining the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Health from requiring 792 newly trained medical doctors to pass the Stage 1 Common Registration Examination (CRE) before obtaining provisional registration to begin their housemanship.
The order, presided over by Justice Nana Brew, comes ahead of the examination scheduled for Thursday, October 22, 2026.
The court’s decision follows a legal action initiated by the Federation of Ghana Medical Students Associations (FGMSA) and the 792 affected students, challenging the requirement for the examination as a condition for provisional registration and the commencement of housemanship.
The injunction will remain in force pending the hearing of the substantive case and the application for an injunction on notice.
Under the order, the MDC cannot enforce the requirement for the affected doctors to sit and pass the examination before granting them provisional registration to commence their housemanship while the case remains before the court.
The FGMSA has argued that the Common Registration Examination duplicates assessments already undertaken by students in accredited medical and dental schools.
The association also questioned the legal basis for the examination requirement under the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857).
The legal challenge places the examination requirement and its enforcement as a condition for provisional registration at the centre of the dispute.
The court’s interim order temporarily restrains the enforcement of that requirement against the 792 affected doctors while the substantive issues are considered.
However, the injunction does not, by itself, determine the legality of the Common Registration Examination or resolve the broader dispute between the students and the regulatory authorities.
Lawyers Rachel Otu Amponsah and Belinda Narkey Quaynor represented the students in court, holding brief for Member of Parliament and lawyer Hon. Dr Francis-Xavier Sosu.
Their appearance was on behalf of the association and the 792 newly trained doctors challenging the examination requirement.
The case has been adjourned for the hearing of the substantive motion on notice, during which the court is expected to consider the application before it.
The court’s intervention comes just a day before the examination was scheduled to take place, placing the registration requirements for the affected doctors at the centre of an ongoing legal dispute.
The interim injunction means the MDC is restrained from making successful completion of the CRE a mandatory condition for the provisional registration of the 792 doctors to begin their housemanship while the order remains in force.
The substantive proceedings will determine the next steps in the dispute, including the issues raised by the students concerning the examination’s legal basis and whether it duplicates existing assessments.
The final outcome of the case could provide further clarity on the regulatory requirements governing the provisional registration of newly trained medical doctors and their progression into housemanship.
For now, the court’s order offers temporary relief to the 792 affected doctors from the specific examination requirement being challenged, pending further proceedings.
By 1960news com
