Kufuor's sessional address is positive - Medical association

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has described the President’s state of the nation’s address to Parliament as very positive with regard to the health sector. According to GMA, the President’s address actually identified all the priority areas in the health sector that needed to be tackled.

The association’s appraisal of the President’s sessional address to Parliament has come at a time when Minority Leader in Parliament, Hon Alban Bagbin has described it as an empty speech, which was only aimed at scrutinizing the former NDC administration.

In a release issued by the GMA on Friday and signed by its President, Dr Jacob Plange-Rhule, a day following President Kufuor’s address, the association intimated that the refurbishment and modernization of health facilities which took prominence in the President’s address are very important for the delivery of quality health to the people of Ghana as well as his emphasis on preventive medicine and environmental sanitation.

While acknowledging the fact, the address did recognise the biggest difficulty facing the health sector, which has to do with brain drain. The GMA further welcomed the announcement by the President to address the conditions of service and remuneration for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other paramedics as a measure to encourage them to remain within the country to offer their needed services.

Another integral part of the President’s speech, which was of much concern to the Association was the pronouncement of the establishment of the Ghana Postgraduate Medical College, which according to the GMA, it is a step in the right direction. The GMA believes that there is no doubt that the initiative is one of the ways of stemming the brain drain of doctors from the country, the release concluded.