A healthcare worker, Nana, has recounted how poor working conditions in Ghana compelled him to leave the country in search of greener pastures in the United Kingdom.

He disclosed this on the Super Morning Show, on Thursday, February 10, 2022.

He said despite the meagre salary he was earning as a professional healthcare worker, poor working facilities also hampered his work output.

"When I was working in Ghana, it always felt like I was shackled. You have the urge to work but sometimes there are no facilities to help you make the impact you want on your patients," he said.

His comment was part of discussions on the show which centred on the spate of doctors leaving the country to seek greener pastures abroad.

According to a document sighted by JoyNews from the House of Commons in the UK, there are a total of 3,395 doctors of Ghanaian origin working in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Ghana had a total of 3,236 doctors as of 2021, according to statistics.com. This indicates that there are more doctors of Ghanaian origin working in the UK than those currently working in Ghana.

Nana is among the 3,395 healthcare workers of Ghanaian descent who have migrated and are working in the United Kingdom. He said though the decision was quite a tough one, the urge to better himself influenced him to migrate.

"It was always about the whole academic purpose of bettering myself - to get more skills and information to impact more on my patients.

"I've had the privilege of working in both the private and public sectors in Ghana and throughout my practice in Ghana I've always felt like this isn't the medicine that I've always dreamt about and this isn't what I've always envisioned in terms of medicine. I always felt that there is something missing. There was also an aspect of getting better pay involved.

Now, he earns (in the UK) about seven times as much as he used to earn in Ghana.

"In Ghana, I earned roughly ¢3,000 to ¢3,500 thereabout and in the UK I earn roughly £2,800," he told host Kojo Yankson.

Nana added, "what will make me come back, probably if the system sort of changes, whereby when the doctor is working, he doesn't have to think about what is going into his pocket (his salary)."

The Vice President of the Ghana Medical Association, who was also on the show, confirmed this and expressed worry over the situation.

He said many competent, well-trained health care professionals relocate from Ghana on daily basis due to poor economic conditions, thus, entreating government to address the systemic challenges in order to avert losing all the well-trained personnel in the sector.

“We keep seeing numbers in professions that ideally we think is absurd, but that’s the reality. You go to work and you overhear professionals discussing their exit – either they are preparing themselves or in the next couple of days they may be leaving and you see it all the time,” he said.

“Government will have to reprioritise and place a lot more premium on the healthcare, workplace environment and address the systemic problems. As we say the wealth of the nation is dependent on its health.

"We can just go ahead and pay lip service with all the things around but the truth is that there are fundamental problems that we need to address until we do that the migration will continue,” he said.