More choice of health professionals by choice – GHS Director Announcement

Health News Saturday, April 13, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-04-13

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has set up an online portal that will ensure equitable distribution of health professionals across the country, said GHS Executive Director Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare.

He added that the online portal would ensure that health professionals would be placed where they needed it most and not where they wanted it.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare spoke at the admission ceremony of 106 new practitioners of medicine and dentistry at a ceremony in Accra on Friday.

The inductees belonged to the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Ghana and the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, as well as to the University of Ghana. to internationally trained students.

Universal health coverage

"We want to reach universal quality health coverage by 2030, and the only way to do that is to recruit professionals in every region of the country so that everyone can benefit from quality care," said Dr. Nsiah. Asare.

He added that many people joined the profession each time, but the inequitable distribution of doctors in the system was a major challenge for the country.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare said that 48% of the country's doctors are currently in the Greater Accra region and 52% in the remaining 15 regions.

He said, for example, that on April 3 this year, "we have integrated 130 doctors into the system. When we opened the portal, in less than 12 minutes, the Grand Accra was full and the Ashanti area in less than 25 minutes was also full. But of the 12 we gave in Upper East, for example, only two had completed the forms. In the case of Upper West, only two out of 12 doctors had completed forms and another 12 doctors stationed in the Northern Region, only one had done, "he added.

"We can not have such a situation if the country is to develop. At first, we posted them but we decided not to post them anymore.

"There is nowhere in the world where people are looking for a job without going through a system.

"So we set up a system, an electronic portal for health professionals, so as not to create the situation for everyone who wants to be in the cities," he said.

According to Dr. Nsiah-Asare, the attitude of parents and some influential people was partly to blame for this situation because they had tried to manipulate the system.

Attraction factors

To complete the online portal as part of the solution to the problem, Dr. Nsiah-Asare said the GHS is working closely with a private institution to provide accommodation for all health professionals, especially those in the regions. remote areas of the country.

"What we do as an institution, it is that we integrate factors of attraction. Thus, with the support of the private sector, we will be building buildings wherever we have a hospital, and in every district we will have district health administrations so that people can sleep.

"We also want differential benefits for those who work in hard-to-reach areas and in rural areas," he added.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare said the GHS would insist that everyone gain experience in rural areas before they can take postgraduate training, with the government now bearing the costs.

Still to remedy the situation, Dr. Nsiah-Asare invited all District Chiefs (DCE) to put in place measures to make their district attractive to health professionals.

Negative image

In a speech read on his behalf, Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu expressed his concern over negative reporting on the sector, such as complaints of professional negligence, unethical behavior, and the like. ethics from doctors and health professionals.

He therefore called on the Medical and Dental Council and other actors in the sector to put in place measures that would give the public a good impression of the sector.

Mr. Manu stated that the department was willing to work with inductees to ensure they are comfortable and successful in their profession.

For his part, Professor P. K. Nyame, Chairman of the Ninth Council of the Medical and Dental Council, said the council was working hard to raise the standard of the profession to a very high level.