Ninety nurses leave for UK

Dr. Sam Adjei, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service on Wednesday expressed a serious concern on the mass exodus of health professionals to other countries, and called for drastic measures to reverse the trend.

He said in nine months this year, just one organisation in the United Kingdom (UK) had recruited about 90 nurses from Ghana.

Dr Adjei, who was speaking at a workshop for health reporters in Accra described the situation as a crisis one, which would soon get out of hand if not checked because the UK, which would need about 22,000 general health practitioners within the next five years had targeted to hire health workers in in specific countries, including Ghana and South Africa, because of their high quality of training and professionalism competence.

Organised by the Media Network On Health with support from the World Health Organisation, (WHO), the workshop aims is to broaden the knowledge and sharpen the skills of the journalists.

It is discussing the role of the WHO in building the capacity of health reporters, coverage of health issues and the creation of health desks in the various media houses, among other things.

Dr. Adjei said the precarious situation had affected the Military and Police hospitals and the situation would even be more serious as more health workers might leave for greener pastures with easy travel and relaxation of work requirements of the UK and other countries where their services were better paid for. He said the UK for instance, had relaxed its laws on recruitment for the profession who were in the past expected to write examinations.

Dr. Adjei called for a clarification of the roles, functions and structure and relationship between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Health (MOH).

He said there was a perceived misunderstanding between the functions of the MOH and the GHS, which was constraining the effective running of the Ghana Health Service.

Dr. Adjei said despite the autonomous nature of the GHS, health facilities and the staff of the service, especially those at the district level were to be managed by the district assemblies under the Local Government Act.

He said under the requirement, the district assemblies would manage polyclinics and the district hospitals.

He said the polyclinics and health institutions in the districts would suffer under the management of the assemblies, as many of them did not have strong logistical and financial bases.

Dr Adjei stressed that there was the need to foster teamwork at the different levels of the health hierarchy and unify the health command structure with emphasis on the technical functions, improved organisational efficiency and improved conditions of service.

Dr. Melville George, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Ghana, said the Organisation recognised that people must be at the centre of health and the WHO had spent time working with the media to communicate more fully and clearly to the public on health issues.

He said the challenge to communicate more effectively had become intensified as the public was extremely diverse," making it especially important to make scientific issues, no matter how they might sound to be understood by everyone."

Dr. George asked health reporters to take into account the culture and priorities of the people to make their messages accessible and meaningful.

He asked key holders of information on health matters to make a greater effort to communicate with the media to promote goodwill and mutual understanding in the new partnership between health and the media.

Miss Yaa Oforiwah Acquah, Co-ordinator of the Network regretted that the Ghanaian media had more to do to reduce the impact of destructive diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition on the people.

She called on journalists to map out strategies to effectively communicate health issues, especially to the less privileged and the poor in society.

"A little broadcast, commentary or write up in the media can save millions of lives, but we are not doing much, while the millions die, some through superstition and preventable diseases".

Ms Acquah said, although journalists could not help eradicate health problems overnight, their little input could make a difference in society and asked them to create health desks in the media houses to promote health education.

Rev. Kofi Awadzi of the Information Services Department chaired the function and urged participants to work harder in promoting health education in the media.

Dr. Sam Adjei, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service on Wednesday expressed a serious concern on the mass exodus of health professionals to other countries, and called for drastic measures to reverse the trend.

He said in nine months this year, just one organisation in the United Kingdom (UK) had recruited about 90 nurses from Ghana.

Dr Adjei, who was speaking at a workshop for health reporters in Accra described the situation as a crisis one, which would soon get out of hand if not checked because the UK, which would need about 22,000 general health practitioners within the next five years had targeted to hire health workers in in specific countries, including Ghana and South Africa, because of their high quality of training and professionalism competence.

Organised by the Media Network On Health with support from the World Health Organisation, (WHO), the workshop aims is to broaden the knowledge and sharpen the skills of the journalists.

It is discussing the role of the WHO in building the capacity of health reporters, coverage of health issues and the creation of health desks in the various media houses, among other things.

Dr. Adjei said the precarious situation had affected the Military and Police hospitals and the situation would even be more serious as more health workers might leave for greener pastures with easy travel and relaxation of work requirements of the UK and other countries where their services were better paid for. He said the UK for instance, had relaxed its laws on recruitment for the profession who were in the past expected to write examinations.

Dr. Adjei called for a clarification of the roles, functions and structure and relationship between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Health (MOH).

He said there was a perceived misunderstanding between the functions of the MOH and the GHS, which was constraining the effective running of the Ghana Health Service.

Dr. Adjei said despite the autonomous nature of the GHS, health facilities and the staff of the service, especially those at the district level were to be managed by the district assemblies under the Local Government Act.

He said under the requirement, the district assemblies would manage polyclinics and the district hospitals.

He said the polyclinics and health institutions in the districts would suffer under the management of the assemblies, as many of them did not have strong logistical and financial bases.

Dr Adjei stressed that there was the need to foster teamwork at the different levels of the health hierarchy and unify the health command structure with emphasis on the technical functions, improved organisational efficiency and improved conditions of service.

Dr. Melville George, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Ghana, said the Organisation recognised that people must be at the centre of health and the WHO had spent time working with the media to communicate more fully and clearly to the public on health issues.

He said the challenge to communicate more effectively had become intensified as the public was extremely diverse," making it especially important to make scientific issues, no matter how they might sound to be understood by everyone."

Dr. George asked health reporters to take into account the culture and priorities of the people to make their messages accessible and meaningful.

He asked key holders of information on health matters to make a greater effort to communicate with the media to promote goodwill and mutual understanding in the new partnership between health and the media.

Miss Yaa Oforiwah Acquah, Co-ordinator of the Network regretted that the Ghanaian media had more to do to reduce the impact of destructive diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition on the people.

She called on journalists to map out strategies to effectively communicate health issues, especially to the less privileged and the poor in society.

"A little broadcast, commentary or write up in the media can save millions of lives, but we are not doing much, while the millions die, some through superstition and preventable diseases".

Ms Acquah said, although journalists could not help eradicate health problems overnight, their little input could make a difference in society and asked them to create health desks in the media houses to promote health education.

Rev. Kofi Awadzi of the Information Services Department chaired the function and urged participants to work harder in promoting health education in the media.