Greater Accra region director of the Ghana Health Service says the current doctor/patient ratio at the Tema General Hospital is making healthcare delivery there very burdensome. Prof. Irene Agyapong told Joy FM’s Top Story that a hospital that delivers over 600 births monthly, “it is difficult to handle” such a situation with only three doctors, when it needs at least six of them. She said most of the doctors there have left because “they get burnt out; I spoke to those who left and they said we are exhausted, we are weary, we can’t take it anymore”. Prof. Irene Agyapong noted that the problem is not peculiar to the Tema General Hospital, noting that the whole country is in short supply of doctors, hence the difficulties in getting replacement. Currently, she stated that the hospital is “constantly walking a tightrope” to get the problem solved. But there is no clear time line when the situation there would improve as Prof. Agyapong observed, “It depends on how soon we get doctors.” There were reports over the weekend that pregnant women were being turned away due to shortage of doctors. Some pregnant women have appealed to the government to intervene immediately. However, Prof. Irene Agyapong said the hospital is not turning pregnant women away as being portrayed. She explained: “It is impossible to handle that kind of work load with three doctors. So for the safety of the women, they are being advised this is our situation...we are working desperately on solving it but please if you decide you want to stay here, you are going to have a long waiting time, and if it happens to be an acute emergency that is not advisable. Till we have solved this problem, just use another hospital, I think it is fair to let the client be aware, rather than deceive them, have them seat on the bench for hours…but nobody is turning clients away.” She said hospitals in Tema have been notified about the “temporary crisis situation” there, and have been asked to attend to patients who report to their facilities, especially from the Tema General Hospital. Prof. Irene Agyapong, who absolved anybody from blame, described the healthcare delivery situation in Ghana as a “really big problem”, and called on stakeholders to face up the challenges and find lasting solution to them. On a light note, she expressed amusement at the recent strike embarked upon by doctors at the Surgical Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi who were unhappy with the hospital’s decision not to retain any of the over 70 newly trained specialists. “I sympathise with Komfo Anokye, but I was also laughing when they went on strike; I said oh my God you don’t know what you have got, I sympathise with you but there is worse out there.” She suggested that better incentives for doctors, especially junior doctors, will alleviate the prevailing situation at the Tema General Hospital.