Medical students protest against poor conditions

The Federation of Ghana Medical Students Association on Thursday expressed concern about the prevailing difficulties under which it members studied and observed that it contributed to the desire go out in search of greener pastures after graduation.

At a press conference in Accra, Mr John Amuasi, the President of the association, said the poor conditions of under which they trained coupled with unattractive conditions of service of medical officers had bedevilled the profession.

He said since the inception of medical education in Ghana, in 1962 there had been more than 100 per cent increase in the admission of students into the three medical schools without any significant change in infrastructure.

Mr Amuasi said medical schools in Ghana were woefully understaffed, thus the dedicated lecturers, many of whom were underpaid were compelled to combine teaching with extra work thus affecting the quality of teaching and learning.

He also complained about the student's loan scheme that did not take into consideration the seven years duration of their training and the acquisition of expensive medical books and tools ranging from 300,000 to 600,000 cedis.

Mr Amuasi expressed dissatisfaction about the overstay allowance of 7,500 cedis per day proposed by the National Council for Tertiary Education to cater for medical students during the normal tertiary vacation period which they do not enjoy.

He said medical students constituted a major force for confronting health challenges through effective education and called for the transformation of their training. Mr Amuasi said the nation was currently training 600 medical students at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, 726 at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and 79 at the University of Development Studies Medical Training School at Tamale.

He said the desire to pursue medicine in the country was waning due to the poor conditions whilst the ratio of a medical consultant to a student was 1:16 with class sizes ranging from 60 to 150.

The President of the association said the average age of consultants and lecturers was 55 and pledged the commitment of the federation to collaborate with government to find lasting solution to the problems.