The Health Minister and other government officials at the press briefing
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has indicated that the ministry is working with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to streamline a migration policy for workforce deployment – particularly nurses – to other countries.
According to Mr. Agyeman-Manu, this will be done within the available local and international frameworks for health workforce deployment and reintegration.
This, the minister said, would ensure financial and brain gain from international deployment of health workforce through mutually beneficial bilateral agreements.
“Government started managing migration in small quantities from Ghana to Barbados. So the new strategy is that, we will engage those who need some of our nurses to see how best we would allow them go and work,” he said.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu made these known when he took his turn at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra. He said the move forms part of measures to help curb the mass migration of health workers into other countries.
Speaking on some achievements chalked by the ministry, he said the establishment of a Vaccine Institute in Ghana, represented a significant advancement in regional healthcare.
“This initiative stands out as the second institute in West Africa and the sixth across the entire African continent,” he said.
“In August 2023, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) was designated as a Regional Centre of Regulatory Excellence in Vaccines Regulatory Oversight in Africa by African Union Development Agency — New Partnership for Africa’s Development,” he said.
According to him, the designation underscores the FDA’s commitment to strengthening the vaccine regulatory capacity of other regulatory authorities in Africa, adding that the achievement aligns with the President’s agenda to make Ghana a vaccine manufacturing hub for Africa.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu said the Drugs Laboratory of the FDA’s Centre for Laboratory Services and Research has achieved WHO-Prequalified Quality Control Laboratory status, the first in the ECOWAS region.
With the attainment of this status, test results issued by this laboratory will be recognised globally, creating opportunities for locally manufactured medicines to access the international market while aiding in the effective facilitation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Touching on Ghana’s roadmap for attaining universal health coverage by 2030, he said government was focused on improving access to quality health services and minimising avoidable maternal, adolescent, child mortality and disabilities.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu said the mandate of the ministry is to improve the health status of all people living in Ghana through effective and efficient policy formulation, resource mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation.
He said the vision of the health sector was to have a healthy population for national development and also to contribute to socio-economic development and the development of a local health industry.
This, he said, could be achieved by promoting health and vitality, through access to quality health for all people living in Ghana.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri