Health sector to experience improved doctor-patient ratio - UG Vice chancellor

Ghana will soon have an improved number of medical practitioners in the country to bridge the existing gap in the doctor-patient ratio in the country.

This will happen as a result of the introduction of Ghana’s premier first private medical school, Family Health University College which seeks to train more qualified medical practitioners into the system to help compliment Government’s effort at providing medical training.

Speaking at the second matriculation since its inception, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, the keynote speaker at the event maintained that Ghana in its current state has one doctor attending to a number of 10, 450 patients; an unsatisfactorily imbalanced ratio.

This he said is problematic as it falls below the 1 doctor to 5000 patient ratio per the recommendations of the Commonwealth and the 1 doctor to 1,320 patients per the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

“We still have one doctor taking care of 10,450 patients instead of at most one doctor to 5,000 as recommended by the Commonwealth or one doctor to 1,320 as recommended by the World Health Organisation. As a country therefore, there is a continuously burning need to train more doctors’’

Mr. Oduro Owusu also stressed on the importance of innovation in the industry. According to him, the country needs innovative men and women who are willing to take major risks and try new approaches in solving the country’s needs in the health sector, adding that the introduction of the Family Health Medical School will aid in solving the problem.

He believes the establishment of Family Health University College will ease the pressure on the health sector in the county and also be a prime centre for medical innovation and training.