The Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefia, has urged health professionals to accept postings to rural areas because such postings were crucial to the delivery of quality health care.
“Your presence will not only ensure that people in these deprived communities receive quality medical care but will also contribute enormously towards the success of the government’s health policies,” he said.
Mr Segbefia was speaking at an induction ceremony for 125 newly qualified medical and dental practitioners in Accra on Saturday.
The doctors were trained at the University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry and some foreign universities in Russia, China, Ukraine, Belarus and Cuba.
They would be issued with provisional registration certificates by the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) to enable them to undertake their two-year housemanship in accredited health institutions, a prerequisite for permanent registration.
Challenges
Mr Segbefia stated that the health sector was confronted with numerous challenges and, therefore, urged the doctors to come up with innovative ideas to help address such difficulties.
According to him, diseases which were thought to be alien to the country had become more common, adding that “patients who some time ago would be satisfied with whatever prescription you wrote will now want more information and even question the rationale for taking certain decisions”.
“All these are developments that you need to prepare for and confront as professionals,” he said.
The minister further intimated that doctors in the country had set very high standards in service delivery and, therefore, entreated the newly inducted doctors to maintain the standards.
Studies
For his part, the Chairman of the MDC, Dr Eric Asamoa, challenged the doctors to continuously update their knowledge, since new trends in healthcare delivery were being developed every day.
“Do not be afraid to acknowledge your knowledge gap and seek to fill them. Be open to lifelong learning because science and technology are changing rapidly and you will need to keep up,” he stated.
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