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Akufo-Addo charges doctors to accept postings to rural areas
Speaking in Cape Cape Saturday, the president said the pioneers of the medical professions worked in deprived communities with enthusiasm when the country had fewer infrastructure.
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Speaking Saturday in Cape Coast, he said the pioneers of the medical professions in Ghana worked in deprived communities with enthusiasm when the country had fewer infrastructure.
"The early Ghanaian doctors of legend, the pioneers who built the medical profession, such as Charles Easmon, Silas Dodoo, Cornelius Quarcoopome and Felix Konotey-Ahulu, amongst others, on their return home from qualifying in England, went to work in the rural areas with relish and enthusiasm, at a time when our country was less developed and with fewer infrastructure,” he said at the 50th congregation and 5th oath taking and induction ceremony of the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Cape Coast.
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The President added that “the missionary and sacrificial aspect of this noble profession, young doctors, must not be lost on you.”
Touching on the doctor-patient ratio, the president acknowledged that it is lopsided in rural and deprived communities of the country.
He said the development is so because many of Ghana's rural communities lack basic social amenities such as good roads, schools and electricity.
“I do not put all the blame on our medical doctors’ unwillingness to work in these communities. If we have good road network, and good schools are available around the country and not only in the urban centres, if we have electricity supply in all communities, we would not have to be asking, indeed, insisting that our young doctors go to work in the rural communities,” he said.
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On brain drain of doctors, the president pledged to improve the working conditions of doctors so as not to lose them to advanced economies.
"We will only retain our trained doctors and other professionals, when agriculture and industry are thriving, when we have better roads, better communications, better schools, better housing, reliable and cheaper power supply, and better drainage," he said.
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