604 Doctors Abandon Ghana

Brain drain in the health and education sectors is proving to be one of the distressing economic headaches confronting the country at the moment.

According to the State of Ghanaian Economy Report 2002 a total of 3,157 health professionals left the country between 1993-2002, representing over 31 percent of health personnel trained in Ghana during the same period.

The report said out of 871 medical officers trained between 1993-2002, 604 (96.3 percent) left the country, leaving 267 for entire nation. The situation has put health delivery beyond the reach of the common man, besides widening the doctor-patient ratio to approximately 1- 67,416

Given the fact that a sick population lowers productivity, the exodus of medical personnel with the attendant high cost of health delivery explains why the economy is characterised by low productivity. Because of the significance of health delivery to the economy the report devoted a lot of space to the problem of low productivity. Malaria is the major health challenge and a major cause of absenteeism at many workplaces. It is also a major killer among children.

The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Professor Ernest Aryeetey who presented the report last week stressed that brain drain of medical officers and other health professionals remains one of the biggest obstacles confronting the economy and calls for urgent attention.

Currently the University of Ghana Medical School, the School of Medical Sciences of KNUST and the UDS Medical School train approximately 150 medical officers annually. Sadly, a chunk of them leave even before congregation. Prof. Aryeetey disclosed that within the second year of leaving medical school, 50 percent of every graduating class leave the country in search of greener pastures, while 80 percent leave by the fifth year.

The exodus is not only restricted to medical officers. Out of 944 pharmacists trained from 1995 -2002, a total 410 had left the country by the end of 2002. The same goes for medical laboratory technologists/ technicians. Out of 432 trained within the period, 87 are currently outside the country. Other medical professionals who are leaving the country in droves include dentists, environmental health specialists and environmental health technologists.

The number of nurses and midwives abandoning post for foreign countries is the highest and still rising. Of the 10,145 trained between 1995 and 2002, 1996 have left the country at the end of December 2002. This leaves the many hospitals, especially those in the rural areas with no qualified nurses and midwives.

Last year alone 200 nurses and 20 medical officers are reported to have turned their back on the country, a trend, which compelled the ministry of health to press the panic button. Dr. Plange Rhule, President of Ghana Medical Association during the celebration of the medical week complained about the rising incidence of exodus among health workers. Deputy Health Minister Dr. Moses Dani Baah is also on record as accusing some western countries of deliberately luring medical personnel with juicy offers.

Sensitised by the situation the government set up a $5 million revolving fund for vehicles for health workers, out of which 73 saloon cars were bought for distribution to personnel posted to rural areas.

Besides, special additional duty allowances were extended to all health workers, instead of the old practice where only medical officers enjoyed the facility. While many Ghanaians hailed the government policy, it came to light during discussion on the report that IMF was not amused about that decision and asked the government to reverse it.

Government stood its ground and incurred the wrath of the IMF. The result was IMF's decision to withhold $75 million budgetary support during the last quarter of last year.

The IMF's cold-shoulder towards government compelled it to resort to borrowing from the public, which combined to derail the single digit inflation target of 9 percent in 2002.

Some experts have argued that since Ghanaian medical personnel are in hot demand across the world, government should consider training more personnel for export.

But somebody has to pay the cost of training more medical personnel and that somebody cannot be government alone, others argue.