The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it is unconcerned about the United Kingdom’s decision to include Ghana on a list of 54 countries that should not be actively recruited by health and social care employers.
According to the Association, the UK’s move will only discourage healthcare professionals from using mass recruitment agencies, but individuals can still look for work elsewhere.
The UK government made the announcement in its revised code of practise for international recruitment of health and social care personnel, which is available on the NHS Employers website.
According to the International Recruitment Code of Practice, certain developing countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivoire should not be targeted when actively recruiting health professionals.
According to a press release on the NHS website, the countries listed have a UHC Service Coverage Index of less than 50 and a density of doctors, nurses and midwives that is lower than the global median (48.6 per 10,000 population).
Dr Frank Serebour, President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), urged the government to start implementing innovative measures to retain healthcare professionals in the country.
“There are still countries that have not red-listed, you can still move to the United States, you can go to Canada and the other countries so for me this doesn’t really change much. I think the pull factors are still there, people can be motivated to move out there and ply their trade.
“We should be putting our house in order to ensure that we are putting in the right measures to attract and retain our health professionals, so I don’t think this changes anything.”
The countries placed on the red list of ‘No active recruitment’ under the code are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia.
The rest are Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Republic of Yemen Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
