Ghanaian doctors - second highest paid in Africa

... calls for reduction of disease burden
Accra, Oct. 9, GNA/GHP - Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd), Minister of Health, on Tuesday said that Ghanaian doctors were the second highest paid on the continent next to doctors in South Africa.

Taking his turn at the Meet the Press series organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Quashigah said the government had put in place lucrative measures, which had resulted in the slowing of the brain drain with Ghanaian doctors abroad showing interest in joining the public sector.

On the salaries of health workers, the Minister explained that due to the problems associated with the Additional Duty Hours Allowance (ADHA), which resulted in frequent industrial actions, massive brain drain, the ADHA had been abolished and replaced with the Health Workers Salary Structure.

Outlining measures to address the wage problem confronting the Ministry, Major Quashigah said the Ministry was embarking on a worker census to ensure that workers on the pay roll were actually at post and ensuring that the well-paid worker was productive and responsive to the health needs of Ghanaians. "We have noticed that there are some Fire Service staff on our pay roll and we are paying them. All these are going to be corrected so that we can offer better services to the people of Ghana."

On National Health Insurance Scheme, the Health Minister said about 10 million Ghanaians had registered though it was faced with some challenges in which about nine million people who had registered had not received their cards. He called on such people to contact their district mutual health schemes to collect their cards.

Major Quashigah further called for acceleration of efforts to reduce the overwhelming disease burden, which has for the past three decades showed prevalence in communicable diseases.

He said diseases such as cardiovascular disorders, obesity, diabetics and cancers were also emerging threats whilst trauma and other injuries contributed significantly to the most common outpatients conditions in hospitals and clinics.

The Minister said the disease burden was linked to the environment and sudden change in the lifestyles of the people.

"Most of the burden results from diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia whose occurrence could be dramatically reduced by low-cost and effective preventive measures and are preventable through the adoption of healthy lifestyles."

He noted that the disease burden could cost the country huge sums of money, which could have been used for some other development projects and quoted a study, which said the cost of malaria to the nation was 664.6 million Ghana cedis per year.

The Minister said the ministry had adopted a new health policy, which focused on regenerative health placing more emphasis on preventive and promotive health and seeing curative as a last resort.

Major Quashigah noted that the Ministry of Health was in consultation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports to incorporate health education, nutrition and the principles of regenerative health into the curricula and examinable subjects in the Junior and Senior High Schools.