We don't have the human resource for 88 new district hospitals – GMA

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it does not have human resource to facilitate service delivery in the 88 new district hospitals promised by the President.

According to the GMA, the number of medical students in training now are not enough to offer services and provide the care needed in the health facilities if government is able to complete the construction of the hospitals in 12 months. Adding, the students need to go through a scheduled training to come out well equipped.

In a radio interview today Deputy Secretary of the GMA, Dr. Titus Beyuo asked government to prepare the human resource to offer services in the district hospitals intended to be constructed

''The structure cannot deliver any service except you have the requisite human resource. Also, whilst we can build a structure in 12 months or even a week as we saw in China, Wuhan you cannot do the same as the human resource. The skilled labour is very difficult to come by, it takes us on the average 3-4 years to produce a specialist whose regular medical education is 6-7 years''.

He added that: ''So, you may achieve building your facility in 12 months but you need at least 3-4 years to get one specialist produced. So, it means if you have that foresight, then the production of specialists must also be engineered immediately’’.

President Akufo-Addo in a nationwide broadcast yesterday, April 26, 2020, indicated that government will soon commence the construction of hospitals in the 88 districts in the country without hospitals.

The President explained that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the massive gap in health infrastructure in the country and the need for government to attend to it.

He further mentioned the major investment in regions and corresponding numbers of healthcare facilities. He mentioned 10 hospitals in Ashanti, 9 in Volta, 9 in Central, 8 in Eastern, 7 in Greater Accra, 7 in Upper East, 5 in Northern, 5 in Oti, 5 in Upper West, 5 in Bono, 4 in Western North, 4 in Western, in Ahafo, 3 in Savannah, 2 in Bono East and 2 in North-Eastern regions.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s Covid-19 cases is now 1,550 with 155 recoveries and 11 deaths.



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