Doctors who accept postings to deprived parts of Ghana will be given preferential treatment ahead of their colleagues in major cities, when it comes to pursuing postgraduate studies, health Minister Dr Kweku Agyemang-Mensah has announced.
Currently, 70 percent of the country’s Doctors are concentrated in two major cities – Accra and Kumasi.
Fifty percent of them are in the national capital, Accra while 20 percent are serving in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi.
The remaining 30 percent are sparsely distributed to the eight other Regions of the country: those areas – mostly highly impoverished and remote – are underserved because Doctors refuse postings there.
The northern zone of the country bears the harshest brunt of the refusal of Doctors to take postings in underserved areas.
As part of efforts to get more Doctors to accept postings to those areas, Dr Agyemang-Mensah, who is on a four-day tour of some Regions in the country, says a 70 percent study leave quota, will be reserved for Doctors who elect to serve in the remote areas, as an incentive.
