Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons-a step to keep our doctors at home (Features Page 27)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (Thursday, July 24, 2008)
THE issue of brain drain has been a problem with Ghana for decades now. The issue becomes even more worrying when one reflects on the number of Ghanaian doctors who leave the “land of our birth” to work elsewhere, sometimes not as doctors but in other lower categories of health practice.
It has been said by officials of the Ministry of Health (MOH) on many occasions that the number of Ghanaian doctors in New York alone is more than those currently practising in Ghana.
Without looking at the statistics in terms of the doctor/patient ratio pertaining in the country, the situation on the ground is enough to indicate that there are not enough doctors as well as other health practitioners in the country. If it were not so, why then do we have to rely on Cuban doctors, especially for the district hospitals?
A source at the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) said that the number of doctors practising in Ghana ranges between 1,700 and 1,800 and if that number is divided by more than 20 million Ghanaians, what good news can come out of such a calculation? That is one of the reasons why some of us sometimes ask ourselves if the average Ghanaian could actually benefit from all the numerous health care policies being introduced by the government.
Fact is, it takes a doctor to diagnose and treat a disease whether for free or at a cost so in the absence of a doctor what happens?
Apart from the economic reasons that forced many Ghanaian doctors to travel abroad, one other reason some of them gave was the need to further their education since there was no institution for post graduate training here. It was, therefore, a welcome news, when Ghana established the College of Physicians and Surgeons through the efforts of some senior health professionals with support from the government and some development partners.
To get the college established, the College of Physicians and Surgeons Act 635 of 2003 was passed by Parliament in December, 2002, and received Presidential assent in early 2003.
Available information indicated that the establishment of the college became possible due to the culmination of efforts by a group of individuals in the medical and dental profession, particularly the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), who were of the view that Ghana should have its own national post graduate medical college for the training of specialists in medicine, surgery and allied specialities.
To them, it was deemed necessary to have an institution which provided specialist training to meet the needs of the country, bearing in mind its human and material resources and they did all that they could to get it established.
So now Ghana has its own College of Physicians and Surgeons which has trained 159 Ghanaian doctors in various areas in specialised medical practice at the postgraduate level between 2005 and 2008.
That was in line with the college’s main objective of encouraging Ghanaian doctors who would otherwise have travelled abroad in pursuit of further studies to do so locally.
Certificates offered at the college include Diploma, Part I & II (Membership) also Fellowship, all in various areas of medicine.
Touching on other benefits the country would accrue out of such a project, the Rector of the college, Professor Paul Kwame Nyame told the Daily Graphic in an interview that instead of spending about $40,000 to train one doctor in postgraduate studies abroad, the government currently spent $3,000 to train each doctor locally.
He said before the establishment of the college in 2003, Ghanaian doctors had to attend the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons in Nigeria or elsewhere in the developed countries, adding that they usually failed to return after their training.
He stressed that the level of training at the college was comparable with what pertained in similar institutions throughout the world, adding that there were always external examiners from the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa and some other African countries to go through examinations.
The rector explained that in order to avoid mediocrity, medical practitioners had to be accessed thoroughly to gain entry into the college. They also had to pass examinations for their certificates.
He named some of the courses offered as anaesthesia, child health, family medicine, internal medicine, laboratory medicine, psychiatry and public health.
The rest are radiation, radiology, ear, nose and throat (ENT), oncology, general surgery, obstetric and gynaecology, ophthalmology and dental surgery.
Professor Nyame observed that in addition to the financial gains to the country for offering the training locally, the people of Ghana would continue to enjoy the services of doctors under training at the college, since they would stay at home and offer practical training at various hospitals.
He was emphatic that unlike doctors who were out of school, those under training were always willing to practice in the regional and district hospitals, provided the right equipment for training was available.
According to the rector, the main objective of the college was to minimise the number of Ghanaian doctors who left the country annually and expressed the hope that its establishment would minimise the trend, as results had already started showing.
“The establishment of the college has helped to encourage many Ghanaian doctors to stay at home and work, since they are assured of opportunities to further their education locally,” he pointed out.
Touching on doctors who were already outside, he expressed the hope that those who travelled because of further education would come back home to continue provided they had the requisite qualification, adding that three of such doctors returned to enrol in the college in 2007.
Throughout the interview, Professor Paul Nyame continually expressed his appreciation to a former official of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, Evelene Hefkins, who he said helped the college which was then situated on a small compound around the Switch Back Road in Accra, to secure a $5 million-dollar assistance from the Dutch government for the magnificent building which now housed the college around the Liberation Circle.
In addition, he praised a former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Yaw Barimah ,for the effort he put in to enable the college acquire a site for the project.
“There were times that he took me round Accra to look for a suitable site. We tried various places until we finally settled on the present site. We are grateful to him”, Prof. Nyame recounted.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) which is responsible for the college was also mentioned in the role it played in getting things done for the college to see the light of day.
The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons was established by an Act of Parliament (Act 635). That came about after a group of individuals in the medical profession had advocated for a national postgraduate college to provide training for specialists in medicine, surgery and allied specialities.
In pursuance of its objectives, the college, among other things, organises and supervises specialist training, continuous professional development and supports research in medicine, awards diplomas, certificates and professional distinctions and also initiates and participates in activities and discussions aimed at sound health and the formulation of public policies on health.
“That college could be compared to any similar institution anywhere in the world”, a medical consultant at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) told the Daily Graphic.
With such a an institution to train our doctors in post graduate courses, we hope and pray that they would appreciate all those distinguished men and women, whose efforts turned such a big dream to reality and if for nothing at all, stay home and help save us from the pain of diseases, especially those which are prevalent only in the tropics.