The government will introduce strategies to retain medical staff, says the Minister of Health

The Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has outlined several measures that need to be implemented to address the growing outflow of Ghanaian doctors seeking employment opportunities abroad.

The decision comes in response to urgent calls by Ghanaian healthcare workers for government intervention to stop the mass departures of nurses and other healthcare workers that are straining the country’s healthcare system.

In 2023 alone, almost 4,000 nurses left Ghana for Europe and America in search of better career prospects.

Stakeholders are increasingly concerned that this trend will lead to a critical shortage of healthcare workers if not urgently addressed. Dentists, in particular, are among those leaving the country in significant numbers.

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of KNUST, prof. Akwasi Antwi-Kusi, appealed to the government to take immediate action to counteract this disturbing trend, drawing attention to the already limited number of dentists in the country.

“According to the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Association, in 2023, almost 4,000 nurses left Ghana for Europe and America in search of better jobs. “Without a doubt, one of the most important challenges the health sector will face in the next decade will be the shortage of essential health workers.”

“If we do not stop this ongoing trend, it will pose a serious challenge to providing quality and accessible healthcare for all. I am quite optimistic that the Ghana Dental Association and other professional bodies in the country are looking at how to prevent this from happening in their ranks.”

In response, Dr. Okoe Boye assured that the Ministry of Health is committed to addressing the various challenges facing dental services and other pressing issues in the health sector.

“One of the things that the ministry will be promoting and sponsoring is around partnerships, memorandums of understanding between training centers and, say, district facilities, health centers and perhaps even CHPS complexes.”

“I think as professionals who always want to improve or expand our knowledge, we feel comfortable when we receive logs that say that as part of our training at Komfo Anokye, we go to a specific district for about a month as part of our training. So, if we shape it well and structure the relationship between Ghana Health Service facilities, most government facilities other than teaching hospitals will report to Dr. Kumah Aboagye.”

“If we can establish MoUs between these facilities and teaching hospitals, regional hospitals or large centers where dentists can freely practice, then we will have found a way to ensure that every Ghanaian has a dental experience. That’s why I think memoranda of understanding are the right solution.”

“The second strategy or policy would be to work with the GDA, the Ghana Education Service and the teaching hospitals so that we can increase the number of people we train every year.”

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