Protest over doctors' appointment as heads

The Association of Health Administrators of Ghana (AHSAG), has called on government to do away with the policy of appointing medical doctors as heads of the country?s health institutions.

?Doctors do not study management in school. Why should they be running hospital when the health administrator, who is trained to do so, is sidelined?? asked Kwasi Addai-Donkor, president of AHSAG.

In an interview with The Ghanaian Times in Accra at the weekend, he pointed out that running of health institutions should be the sole preserve of health administrators to ensure efficiency. ?In the developed countries for example, it is the health administrators who run health institutions and not doctors. But in Ghana, it is the reverse.

?It is very difficult to combine clinical duties with administrative work. This makes it difficult for them to be efficient,? he stressed. ?How do we expect a doctor to combine the roles of consultation, surgery and ward visits, among others; with planning and budgeting, accounts, transport and human resource management? he wondered.