The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has underlined some pressing issues that have become a hindrance to medical officials accepting postings to government hospitals in deprived areas nationwide.
According to the GMA, the lack of an enabling working environment and incentives for its workers has contributed to this growing trend.
This comes after the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, issued an ultimatum to newly posted officials who have refused postings to their stations to rescind their decision, citing the lack of encouragement in the posting roster, and described the situation as alarming.
President of the GMA, Professor Ernest Yorke, expressed the readiness of the majority of doctors to accept postings to these deprived areas.
However, he was quick to highlight related issues of poor working conditions, remuneration, and incentives as factors behind this posting saga.
“The situation is a classic chicken-and-egg scenario, which can go either way. There could be an incentive leading to the sacrifice, or we can have the sacrifice leading to the incentive, or we can do both at the same time. I would go for the latter.
“If you go to a developed place and if you accept postings to a much more deprived area, there is an incentive for you. It has been done elsewhere, and it is doable here as well,” he said on Accra-based Joy FM.
He proposed that “It is not just the human manpower that is needed; it is also the facilities to work with. Can we partner with private persons to complete these facilities so that we can get them running?”
Professor Yorke further expressed worry about the gap in posting acceptance in some regions compared to others, mentioning the Greater Accra, Central, and Ashanti regions as places with encouraging numbers, with the rest falling short.
“We are calling on our members to continue sacrificing and accepting postings, but we are asking that the government appreciate their acceptance,” he observed.
The GMA President called on the government to cultivate a dialogue approach with the public to find practical solutions to the subject in the quest for healthcare access in deprived areas.
