One of the most important problems which countries in the African regions are facing are the migration of their health care professionals which leads to an shortage of basic healthcare facilities in the region. Looking at the statistics, one can easily arrive at the consequence that African countries are in dire need of health care professionals because the concept of “brain drain”. This phenomenon is not only giving rise to an acute shortage of manpower, but has a negative consequence on the economy as well. According to statistics, each migrating population of African healthcare professional leads to a loss of almost 1 million dollars. These alarming facts can lead us to ponder about what measures one can take to prevent brain drain. Aspiring young doctors and medical students need proper infrastructure in the form of motivated and well established healthcare institutes, which not only fill the vacuum of well trained professional but can also inspire the students to stay back and serve their own country rather than migrating somewhere else. The focus of this article will be mainly on the healthcare institutes in Ghana, as the health care system in this country is variable. One can see a development of infrastructure in the urban regions, but the rural regions are still being partially neglected, forcing the residents to be dependent on traditional means of treatment or to travel long distances, in order to avail medical facilities.
An important reform that government can initiate is to introduce and establish various post graduate training programs in the existing healthcare institutes in Ghana. This will boost the morale of the locals because lack of specific training programs is important factor in migration. Some of problems which the citizens face in the country are basic lack of education. Most people in Ghana, especially the female population has never been to school. Statistics estimate that this comprises roughly one third of the total population in Ghana. The government can go into collaboration with various developed countries and establish primary education institutes, along with introducing specialized educational degrees in the existing healthcare institutes in Ghana. Focus should be more on constructing medical colleges in rural areas as well, so that the rural population as well as students benefit as well. In Ghana, most of the medical facility is provided by the government. Maybe privatization of firms and educational establishments may reap benefits by stopping the migration of potential doctors as well as offering attractive incentives to medical professionals to stay back and serve their own country.
It is also been recommended that there should be a collaboration of various government departments as well in order to boost the current scenario of healthcare institutes in Ghana. The results from last year have been quite satisfactory. For example, the number of students who have enrolled for various healthcare courses has increased to a whopping 50% and the number of student enrolled in the university has increased by a margin on 20%. Various new health courses are being introduced including courses in midwifery, community health nursing etc. to increase the number of healthcare professionals in Ghana. So here’s hoping that Ghana establishes itself as a pioneer of reputed destination of teaching and training in the healthcare sector by reforms as above.