The Ministry of Health is working with international partners to promote ethical recruitment practices by foreign employers of health workers.
The Ministry is also partnering with the World Health Organisation to develop a framework to manage migration. The document will therefore form the basis for bilateral engagement.
The Minister for Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, stated this during the annual Health Policy Dialogue on the theme, “The Exodus of Healthcare Workers from Ghana,” in Kwahu, Eastern Region.
He said Ghana has one of the highest rates of health worker emigration in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 50% of doctors and 24% of nurses trained in the country now working overseas.
He said the ministry had conducted a skills gap analysis as the basis for investing some of the limited resources to augment the skills that are in short supply.
Mr Agyeman Manu indicated that the ministry had collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) to conclude a health labour market analysis to establish the needs, supply and demand of the nation to establish whether or not there is a balance.
“The policy dialogue among other things will also discuss the network of practice innovations towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC),” he said.
He added that Primary Health Care (PHC) has been identified as the most inclusive, equitable and efficient path to UHC, indicating that countries that had taken a PHC approach had better ability to rapidly build stronger health systems.
Grace Acheampong, ISD
