The Minister for Health, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, has outlined several measures to be implemented to address the growing exodus of Ghanaian medical professionals seeking opportunities abroad.

This follows urgent calls from Ghanaian medical professionals for government intervention to halt the mass departure of nurses and other essential practitioners, which is straining the country's healthcare system. 

In 2023 alone, nearly 4,000 nurses left Ghana for Europe and America in search of better job prospects.

Stakeholders are increasingly concerned that this trend will lead to a critical shortage of healthcare professionals if not urgently addressed. Dentists, in particular, are among those leaving the country in significant numbers.

The Dean of the KNUST School of Medicine and Dentistry, Prof Akwasi Antwi-Kusi, has urged the government to promptly introduce initiatives to counteract this troubling trend, noting the already limited number of dentists in the country.

“According to the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Association, nearly 4,000 nurses left Ghana for Europe and America in 2023 for better jobs. Without equivocation, one of the critical challenges the health sector will face in the next decade is a shortage of essential healthcare workers.”

“If the ongoing trend is not checked, it will pose significant challenges to the provision of quality and accessible healthcare for all. I am quite optimistic that the Ghana Dental Association and other professional bodies in the country are thinking through how to prevent such phenomenon in their ranks.”

In response, Dr Okoe Boye assured that the Ministry of Health is committed to tackling the various challenges facing dental services and other pressing issues within the healthcare sector.

“One of the things that the ministry is going to promote and sponsor has to do with partnerships, MoUs between the training centres and the let’s say the district facilities, the health centres and possibly even the CHPS compounds.”

“I think as professionals who always want to improve or increase our knowledge, we are comfortable when we are given logbooks that say that as part of your training at Komfo Anokye go to a particular district for some one month as part of the training. So, if we fashion this very well and the relationship between the Ghana Health Service facilities, most of the government facilities outside the teaching hospitals are under Dr Kumah Aboagye.”

“If we can have MoUs between these facilities and the teaching hospitals or the regional hospitals or the big centres where dentists are comfortable to practice, then through this route, we’ll find a way to make sure that every Ghanaian gets to have an experience with the dentist. And so, I believe MoUs is the way to go."

“The second strategy or policy would be to work together with GDA, Ghana Education Service, and the teaching hospitals so that we can increase the numbers that we train annually.”