Minister Announces Medical School Plans to Boost Healthcare Workforce in Upper East

The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Akamugri Donatus Atanga, has reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the establishment of a medical school in the Upper East Region.

During a working visit to the Upper East Regional Hospital on Thursday, the Minister announced that he has engaged the Vice Chancellor of the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) on plans to initiate a medical school at the university. According to him, this initiative is intended to address the persistent shortage of healthcare professionals in the region.

He attributed the region’s staffing crisis partly to the unwillingness of many health professionals to accept postings to the area, citing security concerns and limited professional opportunities.

“You rightly pointed out why people are refusing posting to this area. Basically, the fact that it is an economic factor, and some other issues, it is about the way they are brought up and certain perceptions about the region and how people also become familiar with the area.

“So if we address this issues by making sure that we provide a training center, like the medical school, that is going to take off in the region, and people brought up here are trained, one thing is that, they will disabuse their minds,” he said.

The Minister recounted an incident in which an external group seeking to launch a program in the region contacted his office for security clearance after being warned that the area was unsafe.

“So obviously, if you are posting a doctor or a nurse to the Upper East region and he is not from here, that can also influence the person’s acceptability of the area or not.

“And apart from that, when they (medical doctors and health professionals) come to the Upper East, what are the opportunities for them to further. People will come to this place and then if you come here as a medical person and you have no institution where you can further your knowledge on, it also goes a long way to serve as a disincentive and it will discourage the people from accepting postings to this area.

“So if we are bringing up a facility like a medical school where professionals in this (health) sector will have an opportunity to train to better themselves, we will one way provide an answer for the shortfall of health professionals in the region.”

He emphasized that beyond training local professionals, the medical school would create an enabling environment for healthcare investment in the region.

“If someone wants to build a health facility, he will be looking at the availability of doctors,” he said. “If you want to come and put up a health facility here and you would have to transport doctors from Accra or Kumasi to come here and provide the services, it is discouraging. So the private individuals who have the money, who have the financial muscle to be able to invest in this area, they chicken out because of those situations.”

Hon. Atanga also noted that the region has been disproportionately affected by the recent strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association.

“We are worst hit because we do not have many of the private sector players in this sector. If we were to have many of such private sector players, at least it would be minimal because people would have the alternative. If the central government one is not working, I would go to the other area. But they are countable and it is even in the regional capital you are taking about.”

He added that most districts and municipalities in the Upper East Region lack adequate private hospital options, a situation that deters healthcare investors due to difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel.

“So if we are able to put up this medical school, it will address this myriad of issues that we faced,” he said. “This alone points to the fact the medical school is an answer to our problems.”