Tahiru Issahaku Ahmed, DCE for the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region has expressed some disquiet about the number of health practitioners in the area. Mr. Ahmed was worried about the unhealthy ratio of patients and doctors in the area.
He made these comments when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show recently.
Mr. Ahmed explained that under his watch, the District Assembly along with the District Health would focus on attracting more doctors to the Bawku West area
“We cannot say we are doing well in that direction,” he said.
Mr. Ahmed continued to say, “the other day, we were there and we were looking at the patient doctor ratio and it was almost about 23 thousand patients to one doctor. That is serious. My idea was that I would want to see how the Sapeliga Hospital would have a doctor. The Binaba Health Centre has been upgraded to a Polyclinic and so it should have facilities that are matching up to a polyclinic and for that matter should also have a doctor. If we get a doctor at Binaba, a doctor at Teshie, the congestion everything thing at Zebilla would ease.”
The Bawku West DCE was pained that indigenes who have trained to be medical doctors are unwilling to stay in the area to work.
“Our own sons and daughters who are trained as doctors are not willing to come and work. I am struggling to understand. You see, the old time things that if you grow in your own place, your people, they would hate you, they would kill you, I do not know whether it is still that ld mentality or it is economic,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
