Some trained doctors who are currently at home unemployed whiles several completed health projects waste away, are asking the government to urgently resolve the perennial issues that surround their absorption into the public health system.
The doctors, who completed their housemanship in 2017, have since not been absorbed by the Ghana Health Service.
This according to them, is largely due to the failure by the Ministry of Finance to grant them clearance.
[contextly_sidebar id=”P9oPbdxPQ3nckWYBZ1kHxxKmaoTL0hDp”]The junior doctors say they get frustrated with the situation as doing nothing at home sometimes leaves them depressed.
One of them complained in a Citi News interview that the delay in employing them, saying “I’m very saddened by this development knowing very well that there are health facilities and Ghanaians across this country in dire need of doctors.”
“I am saddened that this frustration is compelling doctors to consider other alternatives like leaving the country. Something needs to be done about this annual problem as soon as possible,” he added.
Another doctor said staying at home makes them feel useless, adding that depression is also setting in.
“We are at home and it feels like you are useless, and it also leads to depression. Sometimes it’s not been very convenient for most of us. I really pray that government does something about it. This is unwarranted and an unnecessary loss of manpower to the state.”
“It is very frustrating to be in this position because man must live. You need to pay for amenities and survive. Five months and counting, there is no source of income. All we have to do is to pray and sometimes embarrassingly depend on others. It is not a very nice feeling at all,” another junior doctor added.
245 jobless doctors get financial clearance after Citi FM’s ‘intervention’
In 2017, following Citi FM’s intervention, the Ministry of Finance cleared some 245 doctors after six months of being unemployed.
The commitment of the government to absorbing these doctors, and healthcare in general, was questioned when one of the doctors wrote to Citi FM conveying the frustration of the jobless doctors who appear ready to serve the country.
Other health officials have in the past few months protested at the Ministry of Health to either be posted to health facilities or get financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance.
The latest appeal comes at a time when Citi News has exposed a number of health projects undertaken by successive governments which cost the taxpayer several millions of dollars, but have been abandoned.
The major ones that have come up for mention are the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Bank of Ghana Hospital, the solar-powered medical centre at the Volo Digital Village in the Volta Region, as well as the GHc320,000 CHPS compound at Teshie which are all not in use.
With the University of Ghana Medical Centre, although the first phase has been completed, there is a tussle between the University of Ghana and the Health Ministry, as to who to manage the facility, with government saying it needs an additional $6 million to make it operational.
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By: Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana