More health professionals leave for greener pastures

Page 31, Aug 21, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
IT is estimated that 6,546 health professionals left Ghana to other countries in search of greener pastures between 2001 and 2006.
They included 418 doctors, 1,155 pharmacists, 3,496 nurses, 296 medical laboratory technicians, 1,001 midwives and 180 community health nurses.
The total estimated loss to the country through the brain drain within the same period was $87.77 million which is 16.5 per cent of the 2006 total health budget of $531.84 million.
These startling revelations were contained in the performance audit report of the Auditor-General on the management of human resources for effective primary healthcare delivery by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The report, which has been submitted to Parliament, formed part of deliberations of the ongoing public sittings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, led officials of the ministry to discuss the report with the 25-member committee.
The report indicated that the trend in the loss of trained personnel was not abating despite government efforts at meeting most demands of health workers.
The problem of medical professionals leaving the country was blamed on poor remuneration and lack of career development, among other reasons.
The report also identified that there was inequitable distribution of health personnel throughout the country, which was skewed towards urban centres to the disadvantage of the rural areas.
Again, despite the low staff numbers, the GHS draws its administrative personnel from the few available and experienced health professionals.
For instance, as of 2005, the Brong Ahafo Region required 90 doctors, out of which 58 were at post.
The report, however, found that out of the 58 doctors who were at post in the region, 21 were district directors, two with the Rural Health Division while five were in research centres, leaving only 30 to do medical work.
Furthermore, the report found that there were about a total of six months working days lost to strikes between 2001 and 2005 which resulted in the loss of lives and over GH¢500,000 in direct cost, since striking workers were paid their wages for the days they were on strike.
Discussing these revelations with members of the PAC, Dr Kunbuor noted that the brain drain was a canker which the country needed to tackle to ensure that trained health personnel stayed to provide quality health service to the people.
On what measures had been put in place to bond medical doctors, Dr Kunbuor said the ministry could not bond them, since it did not control their training.
He explained, however, that the ministry was able to bond nurses whose training were funded by the government.
As to whether it was the crave to control budgets that attracts doctors to the administrative sectors of the health service, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Ellias Sory, explained that those who were in such positions also played critical roles in the country’s health delivery.
He stated that efforts were being made to increase the number of health training institutions while 80 per cent intake of such institutions would be allocated to people in the regions where the institutions were located.
Also at the sitting was the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, and a team of high-ranking officials from the ministry.
They assisted the committee to discuss the performance audit report of the Auditor-General on the Accountability Arrangements in the Solid Waste Management.
Mr Chireh thanked the committee for the encounter and called for the involvement of all in the management of the country’s solid waste, since it was a shared responsibility.