[ 2016-01-28 ]

More doctors needed in SADA zone
The Executive Director of the Christian Health
Association of Ghana (CHAG), Mr Peter Kwame
Yeboah, has bemoaned the high rate of maternal
deaths in the Savanna Accelerated Development
Authority (SADA) zone of the country and blamed
the situation on the unproportioned distribution
of critical health personnel in the country.

In an interview in Accra, Mr Yeboah said currently
450 doctors were needed to bridge the
doctor-patient ratio per population requirements
in the SADA zone.

He said the effect of this acute shortage was felt
more in the Upper West and East regions of the
country.

He cited, for instance, the case in the whole of
the Upper West Region where there was only one
obstetrician/gynaecologist and advocated for the
equitable distribution of health professionals
throughout the country to avert avoidable deaths,
particularly pregnancy-related ones.

The situation, he observed, perpetuated health
inequalities, undermined socio-economic
development and constituted “a national neglect
of vulnerable populations which must be addressed
with a collective sense of urgency, commitment and
priority attention as a nation”.

That, he said, would require structural changes in
the training, orientation, deployment of the
socio-economic drivers affecting healthcare
professionals in rural and deprived settings of
the country, especially in the SADA zone.

Mr Yeboah said health professionals were
concentrated in the urban areas, to the
disadvantage of the rural areas, saying, for
instance, that 80 per cent of pharmacists in the
country were located in Kumasi and Accra.

He was of the view that promoting ICT in
healthcare delivery would help address some of the
challenges posed by the lack of adequate
healthcare providers, particularly in under-served
areas.

Source - Graphic online

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