Female medical doctors in Ghana have been advised to aspire for excellence in the medical profession and contribute their quota towards improving health delivery.

Professor (Dr) Afua Hesse, President of Medical Women’s International Association, gave the advice at a public lecture, as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) in Accra.

She said for anyone to succeed including women in medicine, it was important to employ hard work, fortitude and determination as well as commitment to the job in order to reap results that would push the profession forward.

Prof. Hesse, who spoke on the topic: “Women in Medicine in Ghana,” cited women who have excelled as doctors over the past 50 years and the challenges they faced in the practice of their profession.

She regretted that since 1962 to date only 634 women out of the 2,741 students had been trained as doctors constituting about 23.1 per cent in the country, and called on women to work hard and enroll at the medical school.

Prof. Hesse said, challenges women in medicine often faced included the negative perception that they could not be good professionals, while other people refused to recognise women as doctors but kept referring to them as nurses, which was a disincentive to them.

Prof. Grace Parkins, Dean of UGMS, said women doctors were doing their best to ensure that they contributed their quota towards improving healthcare delivery in the country.**