GHS concerned about the low intake of trainees into Nursing Colleges

Accra, Dec. 28, GNA - Professor Badu Akosah, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, on Wednesday expressed concern about the low intake of trainees into Nursing Colleges and urged the Government to make more efforts to retain health professionals in the country. He said allowances given to trainees could rather be used to establish more training colleges in the country, so as to meet the high demand of health professionals, which remained a challenge to the health service.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Prof Akosa said, "the phenomenon whereby a doctor cared for about 200 patients a day because they were understaffed, often lead to stress, and indemnity for them was, therefore, no crime". He said 36,000 health workers were not enough to meet the health needs of the more than 20 million Ghanaian population, and called for the introduction of new levels of staff. "We must believe that we are in a crisis, and therefore focus and see how best we can solve it, "he said.

The Director General said the GHS was expecting improvements in the remuneration for health workers as promised in the 2006 Budget in order to improve conditions of service for staff. He said the Service was also working to establish a scholarship fund to support education of children of lower level staff and expressed the hope that it would be fully operational next year. He stated that the GHS plans to bring lots of innovation into the sector next year, especially in improving community health care delivery system in the country.