The Government of Ghana has appealed to nurses and other health professionals not to leave Ghana to other countries to seek greener pastures.
Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare has told the nurses that Ghanaians are looking up to them to meet their health needs in the country hence they should stay.
His comments come at a time the General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Titus Beyuo earlier revealed that medical doctors and nurses are leaving the country in droves.
Dr Beyuo said brain drain has returned to the medical profession in Ghana.
Speaking on the New Day show on TV3 Wednesday May 11, Dr Beyuo said “…as we speak, doctors, nurses are leaving this country in droves, brain drain has returned in full swing.
“I know that because I am the General Secretary of the GMA, I wont give you figures immediately,” he said when asked by host Roland Walker to mention how many have so far left the country.
He added “But I can give you some examples, I will give you a unit in one hospital I won’t name, a big hospital in Accra, from January till now, five doctors have left that unit
“We need to do something about it deliberate in this country.”
Addressing nurses and other health professionals during the International Nurses Day, in Accra on Thursday May 12, Dr Nsia Asare said “I think the unethical way that the developed countries are trying to take our scarce health resources of this country is not the right thing to do. Ghana, like other developing counties, is seeing an increase in migration of our professional nurses to high income countries like United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and other countries as a result of the global shortage of nurses, caused partly by the impact of the coronavirus.
“This trend is quite worrying and it amounts to massive public subsidy to the wealthier nations, so we are subsidizing their health care system, given the fact that nursing education in Ghana is is mainly publicly financed , it also threatens to worsen the nurse-patient ratio and for that matter our ability to accelerate our progress towards universal health coverage which is a top priority of this government .
“I know many of our professional nurses continue to yearn for greener pastures beyond the shores of Ghana. I wish to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to stay like us and to contained to the development of our country health sector. Bear in mind that Ghanaians are looking up to you in their quest to maintain their health.”
