16 Cuban doctors to help in Northern part of Ghana

WA, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister on Monday formally welcomed 12 Cuban doctors into the region with a call on them to help cement the cordial relationship established by the governments of Ghana and Cuba. He said apart from the regular supply of medical practitioners to the Wa Regional Hospital every year, the Cuban government is this time sending the practitioners to the district and rural areas.

Alhaji Sulemana made the call when he met 12 out of the 16 doctors posted to the region led by Dr Daniel Yeyemain, acting Regional Director of Health Services during a courtesy call on him at Wa on Monday.

The 16 doctors are made up of 10 general practitioners, one anaesthetist, one surgical specialist, one gynaecologist, one skin specialist, one epidemiologist and one pediatrician.

Out of the number, six of them will be at the Wa regional hospital while the Jirapa, Lawra, Nandom, Tumu hospitals and Nadowli health centre will receive two each.

The Regional Minister said before their arrival the region had only one doctor at the Wa central hospital and appealed to them to tackle the basic problems on the ground as efforts are being made to make them comfortable.

The leader of the team, Dr Rudolf Martinez said it is their responsibility to maintain the standards achieved by their predecessors and called on the health directorate to co-operate with them.

He said most of the diseases in Ghana are not so common in Cuba and they would therefore need some time to get acclimatised and study the diseases.

Dr Daniel Yeyemain, Acting Regional Director of Health Services promised to provide the doctors with their basic needs to enable them perform their duties creditably.

He advised them not to hesitate to send their problems to the health directorate for redress. The 16 doctors posted are the region's share of the 72 Cuban doctors who arrived in the country last week.