Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Ghana’s 30% surgical operation output disaster

Surgical operations con­stitute a significant integral part of healthcare globally and the expectation is that all such operations can be carried out on 100 percent of patients who need them.

It is, therefore, unfortunate that currently, Ghana is doing only 30 percent of all surgi­cal operations required across the country mainly due to under-tooling, inaccessibility, inadequate human resources, and the cost of care.

This means the country’s healthcare system is inadequate to a certain extent and this must not be ignored when it comes to assessing its effectiveness.

Clearly, this accounts for why some people in the country choose to go abroad for health­care.

It is not wrong or an offence to go abroad for healthcare, because choices are allowed in every soci­ety, Ghana not being an excep­tion, but there is no doubt that looking at the cost of choosing that path, some of those seeking medical care abroad would have reduced the cost by seeking care locally.

It is important that the four significant factors preventing the country from carrying out 100 percent of all surgical operations have been identified, namely inadequate human resources, under-tooling, inaccessibility, and the cost of care.

This means the country’s man­agers, the politicians to be pre­cise, are aware of the problems and so must make attempts to solve them through the relevant state institutions.

The Ghanaian Times can readily guess the answer to the ques­tion as to why, for instance, the country faces problems regarding surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anesthesia (SOTA) care.

The lack of funds is blamed for every problem that the politicians fail to solve but we think that the good health of the people must be prioritised.

If the World Health Organisa­tion Assembly (WHOA) recom­mends a minimum of 20 SOTA physicians per 100,000 people but Ghana is doing six, definitely these professionals would be unevenly distributed across the country with the number of spe­cialists at the district levels being inadequate.

This means some patients would not get access to these professionals in their locality even if they have the resources to seek medical care.

The result is that they have to bear increased costs to seek care elsewhere, while those who can­not afford such a cost would have to look up to providence.

No wonder trauma, for in­stance, is said to be accounting for a huge number of deaths and has become one of the silent epidemics in the country.

Let it be known to the pol­iticians that the masses or the populace are not happy when they hear the news of a politician seeking healthcare abroad.

Why do politicians plead no funds when the matter concerns ordinary people but quietly use state funds to care for themselves and their families in every aspect of their lives?

Certainly, no one country has adequate resources to cater to all the needs of the people, but healthcare must top the priority list because good health is what is needed for every citizen to be able to play a role in nation-building.