According to the Association, government’s refusal to post qualified doctors and dentists across the country is taking a toll on Ghana’s health care delivery system.

[contextly_sidebar id=”gh7qNuhFLV9mKagR1nUkLu0Otpyf8fEZ”]Speaking at the 59th Annual General Conference of the (GMA) in Kumasi, the President of the GMA, DCOP Dr. E. Ewusi-Emmim, called on the Ministry of Health to address the issue of unemployment among health workers, since it is affecting health delivery in the country.

“The GMA is gravely concerned about the creeping incidence of unemployment for medical doctors and dentists in the country. Ghana still suffers from abysmal doctor to patient ratio. Several communities and districts in the country do not have medical doctors and dentists to serve them at all, while strained manpower languishes at home.”

“Such facilities continue to be manned by single individuals who tend to be overworked and in most cases cannot even take their annual leave. It is worrying that newly qualified medical doctors and dentists as well as those who have completed their house jobs are in some cases unemployed, wasting away to the detriment of health care delivery in the country.”

Frustrated jobless Doctor writes to Citi FM, cries over neglect

His comments come weeks after some 245 trained, but unemployed doctors questioned the efforts of the Health and Finance Ministries in absorbing them into the public service.

The doctors, who graduated in 2014, indicated that all efforts to secure financial clearance for their absorption have proved futile, while many hospitals lack doctors, putting the lives of patients at risk.

In a heartfelt petition to Citi News to highlight their plight, a doctor, John-Diego Kosoe, lamented the dire situation of his colleagues who are idle.

This, according to Mr. Kosoe has even compelled some doctors to leave Ghana for greener pastures.

The petitioner noted that, “out of frustration, I know 3 of my colleagues who contracted huge personal loans and left the country for Germany, just to hustle out there, to do German language courses and get absorbed into their system.”

As it stands now, Ghana has one doctor attending to about 10, 450 patient. This is far below the one doctor to 5000 patients ratio per the recommendations of the Commonwealth, and the 1 doctor to 1,320 patients per the recommendations from WHO.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Gov’t’s neglect of jobless doctors, dentists worrying – GMA appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Association has been asking government to immediately employ and post over 200 hundred jobless medical doctors in the country.

[contextly_sidebar id=”uEZ0f7rNaE3sgyAeKuuIY3FO9jocvoqP”]These unemployed doctors have been home for about seven months, amidst several appeals to the Ministries of Health and Finance to facilitate their employment, which have not yielded results.

In a Citi News interview, the Deputy General Secretary of the GMA, Dr. Justice Yankson, cautioned government of the long-term implications of its handling of the doctors, within the context of its constitutional mandate to provide Ghanaians with quality healthcare.

He also bemoaned Ghana’s doctor-patient ratio which has one doctor taking care of about 10,000 patients, as against the one doctor to 1,320 patients, as recommended by the World Health Organisation.

“The unfortunate thing is that, there are districts in this country that don’t even have doctors or sometimes, only one doctor serving a whole district. The doctor-patient ratio in this country is still way off the mark.”

“These are people who are ready to work. The difficulty is that, if we don’t take time, we will go back into the era where we had a lot of brain drain in this sector,” Dr. Yankson warned.

Gov’t yet to implement conditions of service

The GMA is also calling on government to fulfill its agreement concerning their conditions of service.

Dr. Yankson explained that, “per what we signed onto, effective January 1, 2016, all aspects of that document should have been operationalized. If we are talking about deadlines, we have gone past the agreed date between both parties.”

“What has happened is that, some aspects have been implemented, and a year and three months down the line, some aspects have not been implemented, and these are the things that are beginning to create problems… We arrived at a common point where everybody thought that this was good enough for all of us. We are playing our part of the bargain. It is up to government to also play their part.”

Health Ministry urges restraint

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has given assurances that it will consider the request by the GMA and work towards addressing their concerns.

The Public Relations Officer for the ministry, Robert Cudjoe, noted that, “we have to hold a discussion on that, and see how best we can address their concerns… we only pray that they exercise some form of restraint.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Neglect of doctors could escalate ‘brain drain’ – GMA appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.