The Ministry of Health has announced plans to undertake a validation exercise to remove medical doctors who declined postings to deprived areas from the government payroll.

During a working visit to the University of Ghana Medical School last Friday, the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said the exercise was necessary to address persistent staffing gaps in underserved communities.

He stated that doctors who failed to report to their assigned duty posts by the end of February would be taken off the national payroll. According to him, more than 700 doctors were posted to deprived districts last year, yet some have refused to take up their assignments.

While acknowledging genuine concerns such as accommodation and poor working conditions in remote areas, Mr Akandoh described it as troubling that some districts still have no medical officers.

“There are districts in this country without a single medical doctor. We cannot govern like that,” he said, stressing that government postings are binding and not optional.

Policy measures

The visit, aimed at strengthening collaboration with the medical school and assessing challenges facing medical education, also highlighted key policy initiatives.

Mr Akandoh outlined the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF), a legislated scheme with a governing board and secretariat to support patients referred by specialists.

On equipment and logistics, he said the government intends to expand private sector participation through hospital equipment placement arrangements. Under the model, private providers would install equipment  including dialysis machines in health facilities and be reimbursed per use through public financing mechanisms such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

“This way, government does not have to cough up money upfront to buy expensive equipment while facilities still get the services they need,” he explained.

Regarding stalled Agenda 111 hospital projects, the minister conceded that completing more than 100 facilities within a short period is not feasible given current financial constraints. He said the government is engaging corporate Ghana to help complete selected projects in exchange for tax incentives, after which the facilities would revert to state ownership.

Faculty shortage concerns

The Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Ghana, Professor Alfred Edwin Yawson, appealed for urgent support to tackle a growing faculty shortage.

He warned that the dwindling number of academic staff many of whom are aging or nearing retirement poses a significant threat to the training of future medical specialists and health professionals.

“Our key challenge is faculty. We are having very aged staff, and many of our most experienced faculty members are either retired or retiring, and they are not being replaced,” he said.

Beyond staffing, Prof. Yawson called for the expansion of simulation-based training to ease congestion in hospital wards used for clinical instruction.

“When we are congested in the wards, not all students need to be trained on real patients. We can use simulators,” he said, adding that expanding the school’s simulation centre with more mannequins and specialised equipment would immediately improve training capacity and support increased student intake.