The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in collaboration with the West African College of Surgeons will train surgeons in Ghana and other West African countries to build their capacity in the handling of orthopaedic trauma. The project, to be held in Ghana over the next four years will start in November 2008 and would culminate in professional development to beef up the limited number of orthopaedic surgeons in the country as well as the West Africa Sub-Region. Dr Oheneba Boakye Adjei, a US based Orthopaedic Surgeon, who led a three member delegation from the AAOS to Ghana, made this known when the team called on the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Ms. Oboshie Sai Cofie on Friday. He said the AAOS had a membership of 26,000 with affiliates all over the world compared to the 14 in Ghana that took care of the over 22 million population. Dr. Adjei said Ghana was chosen as the venue for the training programme based on this gloomy picture coupled with the fact that Ghana was one of the most peaceful countries in the sub-region. He said the local organizing committee had helped to develop a curriculum to determine the other countries where participants would be coming from apart from Nigeria. He said the AAOS had the mandate to embark on extensive humanitarian project and that it was indebted to Ghana and other agencies in West Africa to ensure good healthcare. Dr. Emmanuel Kwabena Osei, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee said each country was supposed to have one surgeon to 6,000 patients but the situation in Ghana was critical which called for attention. He expressed the hope that with the introduction of the training programme, the stakeholders would learn how to better manage orthopaedic trauma in times of accidents. Ms. Oboshie Sai-Cofie commended the team for the laudable project, adding that this would go a long way to improve the healthcare delivery in the country. She appealed to all Ghanaians to give the programme their maximum support to minimize the extent to which people lost their lives through mishandling after accidents. Source: GNA