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The country�s doctor and nurse population ratio is one doctor to 10,452 and one nurse to 1,251, the 2012 annual Report on the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (2010 � 2013) has revealed. The report said the doctor and nurse ratio to the population felt short of the target set for the country in 2012. According to the report, the one doctor to 9,700 people target set for the year 2012, has not been achieved. The report said the number of doctors in 2012 was estimated at 2,418, representing a marginal increase of 0.24 per cent over 2011 level, compared to 17.4 per cent increase recorded in 2011. According to the population the bulk of the doctors are in the Greater Accra Region with 48.5 per cent, and Ashanti Region having 20.9 per cent. The Upper East and Upper West Regions have the least proportion of doctors, and recorded the worse doctor-to-population ratio of one doctor to 39,697 people, and one doctor to 40,502 in 2012. On the nurse-to population ration, the report showed that nurse-to-population ratio marginally worsened from one nurse to 1,240 people in 2011 to one nurse to 1,251 in 2012. The target set for the year 2012 was one nurse to 900 people. It said the total number of nurses in 2012, was estimated at 20,734, representing 3.5 per cent, increase over the 2011 level, compared with 23.1 per cent recorded in 2011. The report showed that Volta, Upper East and Upper West and Greater Accra regions recorded the best nurse-to-population ratios better than the national average, while the Upper East Region recorded the best nurse-to-population ratio among all the regions, similar to the situation in 2010 and 2011. According to the report, Northern Region recorded the worse nurse-to-population ratio of one nurse to 1,601, thereby reversing the two consecutive period of Ashanti Region, recording the worst nurse-to-population ratio in 2010 and 2011. The report noted that the attainment of the overall health outcomes, to a large extent as dependent on the availability of the relevant health personnel in their right quantities to provide the relevant health care services. It observed that in 2012, the number of nurses on the government payroll, increase by 3.5 per cent, while the number of doctors increased marginally by 0.2 per cent. �The increase in the number of nurses and doctors did not commensurate with the growth in the national population, hence nurse-to-population ratio and doctor-to-population ratio stagnated in 2012,� it said. The report added that �the total number of midwives, declined marginally from 4,034 in 2011 to 3,863 in 2012 with potential negative consequence for maternal and child health.�