130 doctors cleared for posting to KATH

Europa

September 15, 2017 10:27 AM

The hospital recently announced that it was suspending new emergency admissions due to the shortage of doctors.

The government has given financial clearance for 130 doctors to be posted to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) from October this year.

The said doctors will replace some 150 doctors who left the facility after completing their housemanship.

The hospital suspended new emergency admissions due to the shortage of doctors.

Management of KATH said: “Considering our current staff strength, we are of the opinion that further admissions will endanger the lives of patients and impede the provision of quality care. We would like to put on record that this problem was anticipated by all residents in the hospital and management was notified in writing two weeks ago. Unfortunately, management is yet to communicate a response. This problem has been recurring for the past 7 years and we hope an appropriate action is taken to resolve this issue permanently.”

But speaking on Accra-based Class FM, the Minister of Health, Kweku Agyemang-Manu, explained what caused the shortage of doctors.

“There are two batches of housemen, the seniors and juniors and they do two years. After the first year horsemanship, they are supposed to be reposted to other facilities away from Komfo Anokye while some who opt to stay there do so.

“I think this year what is happening is that there is a new batch to replace those that are leaving and that’s where Komfo Anokye has had some sort of a problem,” he said.

He assured that the 130 new doctors will be posted to help in health care delivery at the hospital.

“We have actually allocated 130 doctors, we’ve got financial clearance for them to replace those that are leaving and they are going to come from beginning of October. But then those there who should stay on until these new doctors come to replace them, about 15 of them have vacated their post and they are saying that they wouldn’t work with Komfo Anokye Hospital so they are going to wait for postings at other facilities and that is what is causing the problem” he said.

Europa