Vice-President Bawumia
The Akufo-Addo government has fulfilled its promise to medical professionals by providing funding for postgraduate training of resident doctors to specialize in the various fields of medicine practice.
The leadership of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) on Thursday were full of commendation for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the effort.
At a programme to launch the scholarship at the Jubilee House, the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. John Nkrumah Mills, said, “We wish to express joy and our deep heartfelt appreciation for what you have done for us (the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons) this morning … we have a promise fulfilled and that has made us see hope for the whole of Ghana, and I want to thank your Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo personally and your government for keeping your promise to Ghana.”
The programme will see to the training of 918 resident doctors into various specialities for a period of three years at a cost of GH¢33 million for the duration, and the government has released funds for the 2019/2020 academic year.
The Vice-President Bawumia, who performed the launch, said, “We realized that the previous arrangement of funding training through health facilities was severely hampered by the ability of facilities to pay. This led to an unfortunate situation when some facilities could not rely on their own funding to provide the needed staff training.”
“A total amount of GH¢6,885,000 has been released to the college to offset more than half of the projected budget of GH¢11 million which the college required to achieve its mandate,” he stated.
Dr. Bawumia stressed the government’s commitment to the health of Ghanaians, with a promise to do everything possible to assure all citizens of accessible, affordable and available health service delivery across the nation.
Apart from that, he reiterated government’s commitment to invest in all aspects of the health system – in physical infrastructure and soft infrastructure by leveraging on technology to leapfrog the country’s development.
“Together, we must work to ensure that the distribution of medical personnel across the country does not put some at a disadvantage,” he emphasized.
Speaker after speaker at the ceremony paid glowing tribute to the memory of the late Professor Jacob Plange Rhule for not just his devotion to the profession and the country.
As a former Rector for the college and President of the Ghana Kidney Association, he was said to have pushed for the funding of doctors’ postgraduate training.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent