Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd) on Tuesday identified inequalities in health facilities, rising cost of healthcare and appalling patient-doctor relationship as some of the major problems facing the health sector. He noted that it was unfortunate that some newly qualified doctors refused postings to the rural areas where they were mostly needed and rather chose to be in cities to the detriment of the rural folks, saying that the gap between the rural and urban centres needed to be bridged. Speaking at induction of 73 newly qualified medical and dental practitioners and award ceremony for distinguished practitioners in Accra, Major Quashigah charged the newly qualified doctors to follow the exemplary footsteps of their senior colleagues and award winners to raise the virtues of the profession. Drawing similarities between the army and the medical profession he said doctors were the front line troops to stop the reinforcement of the country’s disease burden. “Let’s see the disease as the enemy at the battle field and destroy it,” he said. The Health Minister stated that 90 per cent of the ministry’s budgetary allocation went into personnel emoluments making the sector dependent on donor funds and called for a debate on the inclusion of the private sector in managing healthcare delivery. Major Quashigah said the “whom you know” attitude to get assistance to see medical practitioners was worrying and called for its elimination, adding that, if patients had to go through someone before seeing a specialist then something was wrong with the health sector. He expressed regret that despite government policy to reduce the disease burden and high cost of health delivery, the country had still not been able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on health and announced the launch of a comprehensive health policy soon to stem the tide. Equally challenging was the non-availability of statistics for strategic planning of programmes in the sector, he said, and noted that a survey conducted by the ministry into the cost of malaria in 2006 revealed that the country lost 762 million dollars annually to malaria treatment, loss of productivity and transportation to health facilities, among others. “Can’t we use some of this money spent on this preventable disease for development?” he asked The Minister said it was his hope to see the reduction of maternal and child mortality from 100 per 1,000 to 30 and subsequently to the barest minimum. He said nutrition was a crucial factor in reversing diseases but unfortunately its inclusion in the school curriculum had been difficult, citing tight school curriculum as an excuse, but noted that he would not give up. He said Britain had since January this year included it in the curriculum. He urged the new doctors not to take the profession for granted but dutifully work not by what they would get but by what they would become. Prof. Kofi Osae Adadey, Chairman, Medical and Dental Council, tasked the doctors to be guided by knowledge, skill and attitude and noted that the most difficult one to manage was attitude and once they got it right the sky would be the limit. He said habits and attitudes acquired during their housemanship programme would determine how they fared in the chosen profession and asked them to be humble to learn from their senior colleagues on the field. They should also be guided by the Code of Ethics and Patient Charter, among others. “Render to people what they are due in terms of best practices and also cultivate the habit of acquiring new knowledge and skills,” he told the doctors. Daasebre Oti Boateng, Omanhene of the New Juabeng Traditional Area, who chaired the function, urged the doctors to conform to the best practices of the profession and not to cut corners to get rich quickly. “Let honour and virtue be your guide,” he said. Dr Frank Djabanor, Brigadier Dr. Joseph Bandoh, Prof Samuel Owusu, Dr Nicholas deHeer, Prof. Kwesi Nkrumah, Dr. Kwabla Awadzi, Dr. Joseph Tandoh and Dr. Uma Sen were given Lifetime Achievement Awards for distinguished service to the medical profession. The occasion was also used to launch the Website of the Medical and Dental Council (www.mdcghana.org) to serve as a tool to deliver effective operation of the MDC. Source: GNA