Government Tackles Health Sector Problems

The Minister for Health Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, has stated that the Government through the Ministry of Health is working hard to solve the numerous problems facing the health sector.

Dr. Afriyie, said the major challenge facing the country today is the migration of health workers, otherwise known as brain drain to the developed countries.

The Minister said, these problems adversely affect the economy in the sense that funds used to train these professionals are lost as workers abandon their posts for greener pastures.

Dr. Afriyie said these at a press briefing in connection with the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board Meeting – Retreat – which is to be held in Accra from Nov. 19-21.

The Retreat is being held by members of the WHO Executive Board on health issues confronting the world and the Director-General of WHO, six Regional Directors, and other Directors .

The Minister stated that the end result of all these has been the unfavourable doctor – patient ratio and nurse – patient ratio.

Dr. Kwaku Afriyie emphasized that the policy direction of the Ministry of Health is to train more health professionals to minimize this problem.

Dr. Afriyie revealed that the WHO/Government of Ghana collaboration dates back to 1957 when Ghana attained independence and the level of cooperation was then fairly low until 1984 when a major evolution of technical cooperation took place with the employment of personnel by the organization at country level.

The Minister said the programme of collaboration has since been strengthened to include activities on communicable disease prevention and control, reproductive and child health systems and among others.