30 nurses flee KATH in a month

The NPP government’s policy on health aimed at promoting health to the extent of halting the perennial brain drain is in danger. Now it is almost official.

The doctors are leaving the country in their numbers. And it’s not only doctors, trained nurses are also responding favourably to the high demand being made on their services outside the country.

Network Herald’s investigating team has during its rounds, stumbled upon information that suggests local recruitment rings whose agents move from house to house recruiting health personnel especially nurses, who have become hotcakes in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.

These agents brazenly organize seminars to brief interested health personnel on opportunities outside the country. A highly placed source at the Ministry of Health revealed that close to the end of last year, one of such seminars organized openly at a 3 star hotel in Accra, was so highly patronised, that late comers had to stand outside the seminar hall. In fact, some of the recruiting agencies offer their clients work permits here in Ghana and offer to provide tickets for their travels to be reimbursed at a later date.

The danger however is that Health officials are divided on the issue. While some have expressed fear at this negative development others think it is nothing to write home about. They would rather the government addresses the problem. The Human Resource Director of the Ministry of Health Dr Ken Sagoe, who described the situation as serious, disclosed that last month alone, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi lost 30 nurses. “It is very serious, we are losing a big chunk of our young doctors” he said.

Dr. Sagoe also revealed that last year there was a three-fold increase in the number of doctors that left the country but added quickly that with the introduction of the additional duty allowance, the pace seem to have slowed down somehow. Indeed the situation is so alarming that the Ghana Medical Association has warned, that if the situation is not brought under control some hospitals in the country would have to be closed down.

Quizzed on how the scarce medical personnel are able to leave the country without any form of restriction from their superiors, the Human Resource Director replied that they often request for leave without pay and never return. Government though has made some intervention in previous years by reaching an agreement with concerned parties but this has failed to work.

However, the deputy registrar of the Nurses and Midwives Council Ms Veronica Darko played down the problem completely. Her immediate reaction to our enquiry was that brain drain is not peculiar to Ghana. According to her, countries like the United States and the UK experience the worse form of brain drain [obviously certain that they must go and would go].

Prominent among the reasons why the health personnel migrate is poor remuneration and inadequate opportunities. They claim that in the U.K. a nurse receives an average monthly salary of 2000pounds whereas a senior counterpart in Ghana takes some 600,000 cedis.

The contribution of the Chief Pathologist of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital is that the situation will improve when the Health is restored to its pre-independence status as an emergency service. By this, he said, “they will be adequately remunerated and they will give off their best”.

Citing instances where one finds only a nurse manning a ward of about 50 patients, Dr. Akosah also reiterated the call on government to improve the working conditions of health workers to boost health delivery which he asserted can be a foreign exchange earner for the country when managed well.

He however lauded government for taking steps to establish a National Post Graduate College, which will give health professionals the opportunity to further their education in the country.