The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Patrick Kuma Aboagye has reaffirmed his outfit’s commitment to encouraging Ghanaian nurses and doctors to stay and work in Ghana.

Although he admitted that GHS is losing a lot of nurses and doctors to foreign countries, he revealed that the service continues to make efforts to enhance the working conditions of health professionals in Ghana.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, August 17, Mr Aboagye mentioned that “Ghana Health Service has non-financial incentives where you are promoted out of 10 because you are in a deprived area.”

He noted that incentives that allow health workers to further their education are some of the motivational measures being put in place by the Health Service to halt the increasing numbers of health personnel intending to travel abroad.

He further added, “We realised that we are looking at experienced hands, we are looking at some of the other professional nurses. And so what we've done in the last two years is virtually double the amount of people who go for study leave so that in the next two, three years we'll be able to recover whatever we lost."

Also read: GHS bemoans number of health professionals seeking greener pastures daily

The service has been concerned about the mass exodus of health workers abroad to seek greener pastures. 

The increasing brain drain in the health sector is adversely impacting healthcare delivery, as the situation has left some facilities with less staff to manage critical units such as maternity, mental health, surgical wards, and theatres.

Meanwhile, the majority of doctors and nurses leaving Ghana to practice abroad have cited poor working conditions as their main reason for leaving.

But Mr Aboagye highlighted the transient nature of Western countries recruiting Ghanaian health professionals.

“If the Western world needs 500,000 health workers to boost up, it's a cycle. It will get to a stage, they will fill up and it will stop,” he emphasised.

Therefore, he called upon the media and the populace to assist GHS by advocating for additional government support to improve the working conditions of health professionals - so as to encourage them to remain in the country.

He however praised those who have stayed behind despite having the means to travel, urging them to forge on and improve on their skills.