Acting Principal of the Bolgatanga Midwifery college in the Upper East Region, Mrs Amaliba Christian has suggested that in an attempt to deal with the gaping human resource deficit the Upper East Region faces in the area of health, health professionals who school and are trained in the region should be bonded to the region for a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 5 years.
The Acting Principal suggested that because health schools in the region are relatively easy to get into, as compared to similar institutions in other parts of the country, students travel, particularly from the southern part of the country to the region for school.
These students leave the region in droves after their education and refuse postings to serve in the Upper East Region.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Friday, June 3, 2022, Mrs Christain suggested that the situation puts the region at a disadvantage.
She opined that if these students, after their training are bonded to the region for a period of at least 3 years, it would go a long way to shore up the number of health staff available to provide services to people resident in the region.
“I think that when nurses are trained, there should be some kind of agreement that wherever you came from, and you came school in the region, you should work for the region at for three years. [This would be] so that nobody comes in and goes just after training. We know that people come here because they think that we do not have a lot of qualified people here. They come here because the competition is less.”
“They should also stay and work small before they go. If nobody bonds them, they will always go. If structures are put in place, then they will be able to help keep them for sometime,” he said.
Mrs Christina continued to say that “if I know I go to Bolga and after training I would have to work for 3 years before I move, I may probably not go because I do not want to stay. If you come, you must stay.”
It would be recalled that the Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi expressed concern about the number of healthcare workers who are requesting to leave the region despite the shortage of health professionals.
“I must say that for every human resource issue that we are talking about, at least 90 percent of them are requesting to leave the region.”
Mr. Dzotsi said this on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show on May 23, 2022.
Speaking on health infrastructure, the Regional Health Director said the region is not doing badly for now.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
