Vice President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Justice Yankson, has expressed concern over the increasing number of health professionals in the country exiting to find better prospects abroad.

According to him, a large number of skilled and well-trained health care professionals move from the country on daily basis due to poor economic conditions. Dr Yankson explained that the reason for this is due to the poor working conditions for these health professionals in the country. This, he noted, affects their productivity and efficiency in the various health facilities.

“We keep seeing numbers in professions that ideally we think is absurd but that’s the reality. You go to work and you overhear professionals discussing their exit, either they are preparing themselves or in the next couple of days they may be leaving and you see it all the time… On regular basis, these health professionals are leaving. If you even go to the nursing end, I think the rate of attrition is even higher than probably all the other specialised groups”.
Justice Yankson

The Vice President for GMA disclosed that considering the situation, there are various reasons which can be attributed to doctors leaving the country. He revealed that largely, these reasons are more “economic”. This, he noted, was because people are employed as “professionals, highly trained, with expertise that is well sought after by countries in the world over and they’re being given a pittance”.

Dr Yankson’s comments follow a report by the House of Commons in the UK, which revealed that there are a total of 3,395 Ghanaian doctors working in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, per report from statistics.com, it suggests that as of 2019, Ghana increased from 2,857 in the previous year. By implication, this proves that more doctors of Ghanaian origin are plying their trade in the UK.

Working conditions of health professionals

Commenting on the working conditions for health workers in the country, Dr Yankson intimated that despite the fact that Ghana possesses well-documented policies regarding the working conditions of health professionals, they remain unimplemented.

“Basic conditions of work are not implemented. They go to the workplace itself and the kind of environment and conditions under which they work, sometimes is so appalling. Basic equipment is not available, the environment itself is in disarray, very unkempt, etc. So, you go to work and sometimes you may come home generally disappointed because you could have done so much but the lack of resources to help execute your task are not available and sometimes you find yourself being helpless”.
Justice Yankson

Following this, he called on government to address the challenges to prevent the situation from escalating. Dr Yankson noted that failure to do so will result in the country losing its skilled and competent doctors.

“Government will have to reprioritise and place a lot more premium on the healthcare, workplace environment and address the systemic problems. As we say the wealth of the nation is dependent on its health, we can just go ahead and pay lip service with all the things around but the truth is that there are fundamental problems that we need to address; until we do that, the migration will continue”.
Justice Yankson