There are only 633 doctors operating in the 10 regional hospitals, 90 district hospitals and seven polyclinics in the country. Eight other district hospitals do not have doctors and are manned by medical assistants, Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa, Director General of Ghana Health Service (GHS) disclosed in Sunyani last Thursday.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening of a maiden three-day conference of medical superintendents, he said there should be about 1,833 doctors working in the health institutions.
The figure 633 is woefully inadequate as the GHS is running at about 30 per cent capacity as a result of the situation, the Director General said. The conference, under the theme, ?Building the foundation for efficient clinical care delivery - the role of the Medical Superintendent? is aimed at comparing notes on the management of hospitals to ensure the efficient utilization of resources and delivery of health services.
Sixteen participants, including superintendents of the ten regional and three Psychiatric hospitals and the Chief Executives of Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals, are attending the conference, organized under the auspices of GHS.
Prof. Akosah expressed regret about the mass exodus of medical personnel abroad, saying if care was not taken, health facilities would have to be closed down.
He explained that although the country had trained more than the required number of doctors, most of them had left to seek for greener pastures abroad. The Director General, however, added that to augment Government efforts in arresting the situation, the GHS would organise a human resource forum to challenge health training institutions to produce more medical and health personnel as well as reduce the period for training in some cases.
The forum would also explore the possibility of training medium grade staff to bridge the gap, he added. Prof. Akosah noted that health service must always be delivered on the five planks of preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and research.
He expressed regret that in Ghana the emphasis within the past two decades had been on the preventive to the near exclusion of all the others, ?which is certainly not right.? The Director General pointed out that prevention could and would never rid the country of all diseases, as curative services must and would always be available.
?A real thought through human resource strategy has not been developed to provide for the country?s growing population, hence since 1974 the doctor population has not improved whilst at the same time the general population has nearly doubled.?
Prof. Akosah challenged the Superintendents to live up to expectation as for the first time in the history of the country, a clinician is the Director-General of GHS, adding, a clinician is also Director of the Institutional Care Division of the GHS.
Despite the problems inherent in the country?s health-care delivery services, an efficient quality-care must be delivered, while the problems are addressed, he said, observing that a major missing link had been management and management?s ability to deliver boldly.
Prof. Akosah urged medical superintendents as managers to avoid depending on their abilities to take unilateral decisions but to employ the collective wisdom of their staff for the advancement of the hospitals.
The GHS Director-General suggested the need for superintendents and managements to be innovative and efficiently use the human and material resources of their hospitals to generate additional revenue.
Dr. Saarah Akyerekoh, a Sunyani-based Medical practitioner and Chairman of Brong-Ahafo Regional Health Committee, who presided, said ?factors identified as significantly influencing quality clinical care are human resource issues bordering on adequate numbers and appropriate staff and skill mix.?
He noted that 99 percent of clinical specialists in the country were concentrated at Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals with only one or none at all at some other regional hospitals.
If the problem is not addressed, the GHS could not make any positive impact, he cautioned.
