The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says the current economic situation has contributed to the alarming level of brain drain in the medical sector.

According to the President of the Association, Dr Frank Serebour, the medical sector is now losing more experienced specialists to brain drain.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Midday News on August 2, he explained that initially, the GMA thought the major reason for brain drain was that members did not have the opportunity to further their education.

However, after putting measures in place to resolve this, he said the association noticed that the measure addressed only one aspect of the situation, as the economy was not conducive, which then pushes more of their members to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

“With the Ghana College of Surgeons and Physicians in place, it was going to be addressed but we forgot about one crucial factor and that is the economics.

“So basically, what is happening is that even though the college is in place we still do have people who have been trained or specialised and they are leaving simply because of the fact that they look at their pockets,” he said

Dr Serebour said that even more unemployed qualified medical practitioners, who have been at home for some time, take examinations after meeting the requirements and then travel abroad.

He stressed that it is worrying because specialists and qualified medical practitioners were leaving the country.

The president of the GMA charged the government to fix the constant depreciation of the Ghana cedi.

“I was better paid as a house officer than as a senior specialist. When I was a house officer, my salary was more than $2000, now as a senior specialist I don’t get $2000.

“Yet when I was house officer I was making more than $2000. It tells you the dire situation which we find ourselves. It is because of the constant depreciation of our currency and then the depreciation of our economic situation,” he added