The future of the rising doctors

Great efforts have been made by the parents to educate their wards. So as children, our main aim is to become successful in life too. As typical Ghanaian students, we were subjected to the question “what do you want to be in future” mostly by a teacher, many would choose the medical profession until some of us felt shy to choose it. We opted for the pilot profession not even knowing the type of course that would lead one to that profession.

Why was this profession the favourite? Because I can say with certainty that medical doctors receive the most special treatment among the health workers and indeed among other professionals in Ghana in terms of status recognition and salary. As for me, my interest lies on that device that is always next to the Ghanaian doctor, the stethoscope.

Medicine has been my dream profession since I was in the womb and I have worked restlessly to achieve that aim. Being such a lover of medicine, my future took the long road to pursue Bsc. Applied Biology as a stepping stone.

The GPA has been my nightmare since I stepped foot on the university soil and this is aimed at having the chance to pursue the medicine course, owing to the fact that only those with higher GPA’s are allowed into that program of study unless you are lucky to be the son or daughter of the policy makers or affluent in the country.

Fighting the battle to the final year, fear gripped me when my knowledge about the profession was updated by a petition written by a young medical doctor who was jobless for 3years to Citifm and was read by a news presenter. Now My dream profession is losing its worth since the status of the profession in the country is equalling that in countries like china, India, Cuba and Jordan where doctors are produced in large masses and there is no air of dominion of the medical field over the professions.

Should this issue of unemployment of potential doctors not attended to, the future of most young, patriotic scientist is at stake and this will cost the country in respect to brain drain. It may not be won on a silver platter but the problems involved would have a great effect on the future of the country.

Issah Abdul-Hanan Girasu

0546823085