Exodus of Doctors: Prof Akorsah Indicts Gov't

Accra, Dec. 15, Lens - The Director-General of the Ghana Health Services, Prof. Agyemang Badu Akorsah, has been reported to have said that the Kufuor regime has failed to address the underlying issues affecting health care delivery in the country.

According to a Citi-FM news report on 6.am on Tuesday, Prof. Agyemang Badu Akorsah was unhappy that beautiful programmes that have been drawn to stem the exodus of medical doctors from the shores of Ghana have not been implemented.


The exodus of medical practitioners from Ghana, a phenomenon that has come to be known as "the Brain Drain", is one of the crucial factors affecting health care delivery in the country. Statistics show that seven out of every ten doctors trained in Ghana, leave the shores of Ghana in search of "greener pastures" in other countries.


According to Prof. Akorsah, the Ghana Health Services identified a number of factors as "push" factors that propel doctors to go out of the country. Key among these push factors, he said, is the problem of accommodation. He said that accommodation continues to be the major concern of most doctors. He believes that once doctors are assured that they could remain in Ghana and still be able to own houses, then the "push" factors would be reduced drastically.

To this end, he said, his outfit has drawn up what he called "a beautiful" plan to enable doctors own houses on mortgage, except that the plan has for sometime now been lying at the Ministry of Finance gathering dust.


Among the difficulties that the Health sector faces is how to retain qualified health professionals, including nurses and paramedics after they complete their training, as these health professionals tended to leave the country as soon as they complete their courses