Medical school to close down, if ...

Prof Simon B. Naaeder, Deputy Provost of the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana Medical School, on Monday cautioned that the Department of basic Science of the Medical School would close down within the next 10 years if new graduates were not recruited into the area of basic health sciences.

He said not a single doctor has opted for that career in many years after the first batch of doctors were recruited in the colonial days and warned that if serious measures were not taken to address the issue it would be like "killing the tree at its roots".

Prof. Naaeder gave the caution when he briefed the media after the opening of the 10th international conference of Anatomical Society of West Africa (ASWA) in Accra.

The conference, which brought together 40 participants from Ghana and Nigeria under the theme: "Relevance of Anatomy to Good Health", would among other objectives, discuss how to encourage and promote the development of anatomy in West Africa.

Prof. Naaeder noted that conditions of service for basic science teachers were not attractive enough to entice young doctors into the career and this had virtually stopped the continuous training of new graduates.

He said the present crop of basic science lecturers were those who resisted to join the exodus of doctors to seek greener pastures abroad, adding that most of them were nearing retirement with no hope of replacement.

"This, together with the inadequate and unsatisfactory, physical and academic infrastructure clearly put medical education and postgraduate training in the sub-region in the danger of collapse".

Prof Seth Ayettey, Provost of the College of Health Sciences later in an interview, said many lives have been lost due to poor basic health knowledge of the anatomy, which includes the functions of the various parts of the body.

He said poor knowledge would give room for quack doctors and destroy every aspect of health from the basic to its entirety. According to the Provost, the anatomy department had six lecturers serving the whole country and would in the next five to six years go on retirement and to "save the nation and the health care of the people, immediate action should be taken to replace these lecturers".

He suggested that government puts up a new solid basic science institute at its original site at the University of Ghana, Legon, to accommodate at least 400 medical students and train 100 post graduates every year.

Prof. Ayettey called for the involvement of the old quality basic science tutors to train the new ones considering their level of expertise in the field instead of them going abroad taking into consideration the high cost involved.