The Ministry of Health will begin a nationwide validation exercise to remove medical doctors who declined postings to deprived areas from the government payroll.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh issued the directive during a working visit to the University of Ghana Medical School last Friday, stating that doctors who failed to report to their assigned duty posts by the end of February would be struck off the national payroll.
He described the move as necessary to address the persistent shortage and uneven distribution of medical officers across the country, particularly in rural and underserved districts.
“There are districts in this country without a single medical doctor. We cannot govern like that,” Mr Akandoh said.
While acknowledging concerns about accommodation and working conditions in remote areas, he stressed that government postings were binding and not optional.
“Failure to honour postings undermines healthcare delivery,” he added.
The Minister said the validation exercise would ensure that only doctors actively serving at their assigned posts remain on the payroll, as part of efforts to improve accountability and service delivery in deprived communities.
During the visit, which aimed to strengthen collaboration with the medical school and assess challenges in medical education and training, Mr Akandoh outlined key policy interventions, including the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF).
He said the Fund, backed by legislation with an established board and secretariat, was designed to support patients referred by specialists.
On logistics and equipment, he revealed plans to deepen private sector participation through hospital equipment placement arrangements. Under the model, private providers would install equipment such as dialysis machines in health facilities and be reimbursed per use through public financing mechanisms, including the National Health Insurance Scheme.
“This way, government does not have to cough money upfront to buy expensive equipment while facilities still get the services they need,” he explained.
Regarding stalled Agenda 111 hospital projects, the Minister admitted that completing more than 100 facilities within a short timeframe was not feasible under current financial constraints.
He disclosed that the government was engaging corporate institutions to support the completion of selected projects in exchange for tax incentives, after which the facilities would revert to the state following an agreed period.
The Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Ghana, Professor Alfred Edwin Yawson, appealed for urgent support to address a growing shortage of faculty.
“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.
Prof. Yawson warned that the dwindling pool of academic staff poses a major threat to the training of future medical specialists and health professionals.
Beyond staffing, he called for expansion of simulation-based training to ease congestion in hospital wards used for clinical training.
“When we are congested in the wards, not all students need to be trained on real patients. We can use simulators. If we expand our simulation centre with more mannequins and specialised simulators, it will have an immediate impact and help us increase student numbers,” he said.
