The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health have confirmed reports that over 1,000 junior doctors have been rendered jobless after they completed their housemanship.
The affected doctors are home unemployed because the Ministry of Finance has not given the financial clearance for them to be given permanent jobs due to the severe revenue mobilisation challenges the government is grappling with.
It is not much of the joblessness of the new medical doctors who have over the years been guaranteed employment immediately after their housemanship, which is the problem, but the needless deaths and complications that will be recorded from the shortage of medical officers in the various public health facilities. Already, most of the facilities are dealing with a shortage of nurses and other health professionals as a result of government’s challenges with revenue.
The GMA’s President, Dr. Justice Yankson, said that the association is gravely concerned about the situation and is working with the stakeholders involved to address it.
“It’s something that is of concern to us and we have been working with the Ministry of Health and Finance to find a way out of the unfortunate arrangements in place currently. It all has to do with the issue of financial clearance and processes they will have to go through,” he noted.
Dr. Yankson added that the young doctors are getting frustrated and if the situation is not resolved, most of them will also join the long list of medical professionals who are leaving the country.
Speaking in a TV3 interview a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Dr. Sebastian Ngmenenso Sandaare, said that the development was unfortunate because the country is in dire need of doctors but they are now being sent home because there is no money to employ them.
“More than thousand 1000 young doctors, who have finished their training, who have finished their house job, who should be working to save lives are sitting at home unemployed.
“I think that it is a serious issue that as a country, as a people, we have to address. You don’t finish house job and sit at home, that is not allowed,” Dr. Sandaare, who is the Member of Parliament for Daffiama/Bussie/Issa Constituency, said.
But, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Frank Serebour has stated that the media reports of about 1,000 junior physicians having been compelled to stay home after completing their housemanship is inaccurate. Purefmonline.com reports.
Various online media portals have reported that some 1,000 junior doctors will remain unemployed after the completion of their housemanship because the Finance Ministry has not granted the necessary financial approval for them to be offered permanent jobs due to the government’s difficulties in raising income. The stories quoted Dr. Justice Yankson as the GMA President and expressed the Association’s worry over the situation.
Reacting to this claim, Dr. Frank Serebour stated that it is 400 doctors who are home and awaiting financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance and posting from the Ministry of Health and not 1,000 physicians as have been carried in the dialies.
He explained that the situation is not much of a news since it had been standard practice for a while now for doctors who complete their housemanship to go home and wait for financial clearance/posting which usually is readied around September ending or beginning of October every year.
When queried about his locus standi in the association, Dr. Serebour clarified that he still remains the President of the Ghana Medical Association and has not handed over his position to anyone as has been reported.
“In time past, doctors were allowed to stay on the job and given automatic financial clearance after the completion of their housemanship. But the Government through its audit checks uncovered that some do not actually stay on the job yet take the salaries for no work done.
We have doctors who travel outside the country after their hosemanship to work and all. As an association we are working hard to get good conditions of service for ourselves but with the issue at hand, the Government in finding a solution to the phenomena of paying salaries for no work done resolved that after housemanship, posting and financial clearance ought to be done to get value for money and support for our health care system.
This has been the phenomena for a while and on the average, these clearances come about in late September or early October every year. We are in talks with our employers’, the Government, to restore the old order but until then, this has been the practice for a while and we all know that.
The doctors who are currently awaiting financial clearance are 400 and not 1,000 as some media house reports.
We are all stakeholders, let us be guided in our reports and seek clarity when need be.” Dr. Frank Serebour, the President of the Ghana Medical Association told Pure FM’s Evans Osei-Bonsu.
