Ghana’s Minister for Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye has outlined measures to tackle the increasing departure of Ghanaian medical professionals seeking better opportunities abroad.
This issue, raised by concerned healthcare professionals, has seen nearly 4,000 nurses leave for Europe and America in 2023 alone, posing a potential crisis for Ghana’s healthcare system.
Addressing the Ghana Dental Association’s 33rd Annual General Congress in Kumasi, Dr. Okoe Boye emphasized strategic initiatives to mitigate these challenges.
He proposed fostering partnerships and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between training centers and district health facilities.
This approach aims to enhance practical training opportunities, ensuring that healthcare professionals gain valuable experience outside major hospitals.
“According to the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Association, nearly 4,000 nurses left Ghana for Europe and America in 2023 for better jobs. Without equivocation, one of the critical challenges the health sector will face in the next decade is a shortage of essential health care workers.”
“If the ongoing trend is not checked, it will pose significant challenges to the provision of quality and accessible health care for all. I am quite optimistic that the Ghana Dental Association and other professional bodies in the country are thinking through how to prevent such phenomenon in their ranks.”
Furthermore, Dr. Okoe Boye underscored collaborative efforts with professional bodies and educational institutions to ramp up annual training capacities.
“One of the things that the ministry is going to promote and sponsor has to do with partnerships, MoUs between the training centres and the let’s say the district facilities, the health centres and possibly even the CHPS compounds.”
“I think as professionals who always want to improve or increase our knowledge, we are comfortable when we are given logbooks that says that as part of your training at Komfo Anokye go to a particular district for some one month as part of the training. So, if we fashion this very well and the relationship between the Ghana Health Service facilities, most of the government facilities outside the teaching hospitals are under Dr. Kumah Aboagye.”
“If we can have MoUs between these facilities and the teaching hospitals or the regional hospitals or the big centres where dentists are comfortable to practice, then through this route, we’ll find a way to make sure that every Ghanaian gets to have an experience with the dentist. And so, I believe MoUs is the way to go.
“The second strategy or policy would be to work together with GDA, Ghana Education Service, and the teaching hospitals so that we can increase the numbers that we train annually.”
This concerted approach seeks to bolster local healthcare services and stem the outflow of skilled medical personnel from Ghana.
These initiatives, discussed during the congress themed “Strengthening the GDA: An All-Inclusive Membership for Tomorrow’s Success,” reflect the ministry’s proactive stance in addressing critical healthcare workforce shortages in Ghana.