Former President John Dramani Mahama has suggested there is space to increase the number of health personnel in the country.
Mr. Mahama, in a Facebook live address on Thursday evening, disclosed a
new NDC administration would look to expand training for doctors in
particular at the University of Health and Allied Sciences and the
University of Development Studies.
“We have the possibility and we have the plan, if we get elected, to
look at the University of Health and Allied Sciences and expand the
training of medical professionals in those institutions.”
According to him, his administration would “expand the numbers of
doctors that we are able to train at the University of Development
Studies.
Mr. Mahama also proposed fast-tracked medicine courses from biomedical students.
“We have the biomedical science students who can transition to do a
medical degree in four years so if we get some of these biomedical
students onto a fast-track medical degree, we can turn out several more
doctors than we currently doing.”
Currently, the ratio of doctors per population in 2016 was one doctor to
8,481 persons; well below the World Health Organisation’s standards of 1
physician per 1,000 population.
On a regional basis, the Upper East Region’s ratio was one doctor to 25,878 persons.
In the Western Region, the ratio is one doctor to 20,659 persons.
But Mr. Mahama says his administration would expand the training of
doctors in Ghana to address critical deficits in the country’s
healthcare sector upon a return to power.
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