College of Physicians stems brain drain

THE establishment of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) has helped to reduce the number of doctors who leave the country to either seek green pastures or pursue further studies abroad.
Data available at the college indicated that between 1999 and 2003, there was a cumulative loss of 450 medical officers to the country but the number reduced to 205 for the period 2004 to 2008, representing a reduction of 54.4 per cent.
Professor David Ofori Adjei, Acting Rector of the college, made this known at the opening of the Seventh Annual General and Scientific Meeting held by the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) in Accra yesterday.
The establishment of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is backed by Act 635 of 2003, resulted from 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.
Prof Ofori Adjei said from 2007 to 2010, the college produced a total of 198 specialists.
However, he said one of the major challenges facing the college was attracting residents into what he referred to as deprived specialities such as anaesthesia, laboratory medicine, psychiatry, family medicine and emergency medicine.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, challenged medical doctors to network with other professionals in the health sector to achieve results.
Information provided by the College at the ceremony pointed out that global warming posed a major and huge unfamiliar challenge.
Caused by green house gases, global warming has given rise to climate change, which has brought in its wake extreme weather conditions such as abnormal storms, droughts, floods, and fires which had affected human health in various ways.
The effects include malnutrition, heat waves, malaria, infectious diseases, and diarrhoea diseases, as well as HIV and AIDS.
Delivering the keynote address, Prof Ayeetey said researchers needed to support policy makers on how to confront issues coming out of climate change and mentioned change of livelihoods and lifestyles as some of the things which could come as one of the effects of climate change.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, commended the college for reducing the number of doctors who annually left the country for further courses by offering the opportunity locally.
In his welcoming address, the President of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Professor George Wireko-Brobby, said the theme for the event was chosen to reflect the prevailing health problems of the global village.
Quoting from the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports, Prof Wireko-Brobby said global warming leading to global change was already claiming 150,000 human lives annually, particularly in Africa.
As part of the programme, Professor Samuel Ofosu-Amaah and Professor Paul Kwame Nyame, the immediate past President of the College and the immediate past Rector of the college respectively, were honoured for the role they played in the success of the college.