First lady urges doctors to stay home

The First Lady, Mrs. Theresa Kufuor has appealed to health professionals to stay at home to help build the healthcare delivery system in the country. She said in spite of inadequate health resources in the country, health professionals should take into account the large amount of taxpayers' money used on them for training.

"The taxpayer continues to shoulder the burden of costly medical training. Unfortunately, our health professionals leave for more lucrative positions abroad to the neglect of the people who made their training possible."

Mrs. Kufuor made the call in a speech read on her behalf by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Mrs. Hannah Nyamekye in Accra yesterday at the donors' conference for the rehabilitation of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital under the theme, "Korle-Bu in Transition".

She said, "I would like to make a passionate appeal to our gallant and patriotic health professionals to stay behind and help build mother Ghana for posterity".

The First Lady who is a midwife by profession said even though expansion works have been carried out on some health infrastructure such as the Cardio Unit, Radiotherapy and the Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, the increase in population puts a heavy load on the structures.

She made a request to the general public, corporate bodies and donor agencies to contribute towards the ?500 billion Endowment Fund so that "we could reverse the current trend of a deteriorating health infrastructure in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to ensure that all people in the country receive quality health care at affordable cost."

She said the management of the teaching hospital should plan preventive maintenance of equipment, buildings and vehicles to protect the limited logistics and deteriorating infrastructure. She called on health professionals to eschew waste, corruption, laziness, indiscipline and absenteeism in their work..

The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Moses Dani-Baah said most of the facilities at the hospital, especially the infrastructure, need rehabilitation expansion and the provision of more equipment. This he said would spearhead government's effort to stem the brain drain.

He said the hospital should be seen as a national asset and "it is the responsibility of all citizens to sustain and make it what it should be."

The Chief Executive of KBTH, Professor Frimpong Boateng said the medical, children, maternity and surgical blocks would be priority areas of rehabilitation. Touching on the deteriorating situation at the hospital he said, the emergency rooms and the sewage systems at the Children Block are "broken down".

The newly built Accident Block is leaking, he said. In this regard, he said contracts should be awarded to experienced contractors. He said corruption, deteriorating infrastructure, exodus of staff, indiscipline and lack of investment among others are the main problems facing the hospital.

Prof. Boateng said in order to save more money, the hospital has established a block factory to build blocks in bulk for constructions in the hospital.

The Head of Medicine, Prof. Alfred Neequaye said the hospital has the manpower but lacks equipment. The endowment fund he said, would help transform the hospital, "and no more treatment would be done abroad".

Over ?500 million was realised as pledges from individuals and organizations who attended the function.