Stop the rhetoric about health worker brain drain
Brain drain among Ghanaian health workers has been a problem for time immemorial but it seems it has now become a phenomenon that must be addressed.
We remember one of our stories published as recently as August 18, 2023 was about this matter.
In that story, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) disclosed that it had lost 525 of its skilled personnel and professionals to brain drain within the last 12 months.
The GHS said it had therefore put in place a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the loss of these professionals on healthcare delivery in the country.
It acknowledged the loss of some of its experienced and skilled staff members but gave the public some assurance that in terms of absolute numbers, it had not been seriously affected.
What was more assuring was that it had put in place measures to replace these experienced and skilled professionals in the next two years, including further training for staff and the recruitment of more nurses.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said it was putting in measures to curb the mass migration of health workers into other countries.
However, the MoH appears to have accepted the problem as it claims that health worker migration is a global phenomenon and that the Human Resource Policy Direction of the MoH aims to strengthen mechanisms for the production (training), deployment, retention and reintegration of health workforce to meet local and global demands.
We wonder if the GHS and the MoH are collaborating to check the brain drain or they are working individually.
We will not shudder to say that certain things are happening in the country’s health sector that lack clarity and the best of control or management.
It is recalled that last month, the General Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Dr David Tenkorang-Twum, disclosed that a number of nurses sought clearance from the GRNMA Secretariat to leave the country for greener pastures.
In a democracy people have rights and choices, so certainly, these nurses cannot be restrained from seeking greener pastures elsewhere, but the question is “after how many years of serving the country can they do so and under which conditions?”
In April this year, the United Kingdom (UK) announced that it had placed 55 countries, on the list of countries that should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers.
It explained that the red list was drawn from the World Health Organisation (WHO) health workforce support and safeguards list that focuses on countries struggling with a shortage of health workers.
It will be ironical to find Ghana in that list because there have been demonstrations by unemployed health workers in the country, including nurses and physician assistants.
In the circumstances, we support the idea that the GHS and MoH should rather organise the brain drain of health workers just as they have done with some health professionals to leave for Barbados.
We think that the managers of the country’s health sector are doing more talking than acting, some of the talking is rhetoric.
It is about time the GHS or MoH stopped the rhetoric and took action that would bring about the expected results such as tackling the root causes of brain drain among health workers if that is really a problem in the country.
