Renowned Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Prof Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, has criticised the current state of Ghana’s health sector, describing it as poorly structured, understaffed, and undisciplined.
Speaking on The Sages on JoyNews, Prof Adu-Gyamfi lamented the deterioration in discipline and leadership within the service.
“I can’t give a straightforward answer. In terms of personnel, not just in numbers, but in terms of the speciality mix that we need, we are nowhere near what we should be. In terms of the structure of the health service, I don’t think it’s well-structured. In terms of discipline, discipline has gone out of the window. There’s no discipline so far as I’m concerned.”
He shared a powerful anecdote from his early years as a young medical officer, recalling how he and his colleagues rose to the occasion during Ghana’s first major cholera outbreak in 1971.
“In 1971, I was a young medical officer. The first cholera episode to hit the country occurred then. I, Dr Kofi Doe and Professor Anim, we were just instructed to go and take turns and cover the whole of the Ada area. That was the epicentre of it. We just didn’t think to question it or to resist.”
“We just moved. Yes, we had your gloves, and you had a bit of it. We didn’t have water. It was Mr. A.S.O. Mensah, who was then the regional, Accra Regional, Greater Accra Regional Minister. Yeah. We had our bottles, but he eventually saw the light and was sending tankers of water to supply the area. And then, of course, that’s when we could do our thing, wash. Otherwise, we washed our hands with beer.”
The Professor pointed out that while efforts are being made to improve medical education and decentralise postgraduate training, many challenges remain, particularly when it comes to incentivising the health workforce to take up critical but under-represented specialities.
“So, we were willing to obey and serve. So, we did that, and you improvised as you went along. We did. And then these days, even the education, postgraduate education, the College of Surgeons and Physicians is assisting to try and decentralise it. And then the needed but scarce specialities are being encouraged one way or the other to come in to make things easy for people to get into those areas. But incentives are yet to be put in place to attract a whole lot of them into those areas. So far, public health has been very popular.”
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