The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) has embarked on a process of decentralising its training facilities away from the Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals.

This is to enable the College to be responsive and relevant to the health care delivery needs of the country.

The plan is to bring on board, the other two teaching hospitals in the country, and all the regional hospitals, Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule, Rector of the College, said at the opening of the 12th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the GCPS in Accra.

The three-day AGM meeting is on the theme: “Mental Health in Ghana-New Approaches to an Old Problem”.

At the AGM, 99 new members and 26 new fellows were inducted into the College.

The members are Residents who have completed their course training in their various faculties and have been successful at the membership examinations of the College while the Fellows are either members of the College who have undergone successfully further training and have satisfied their examiners.

Others include practicing specialists who have been elected by their peers into the Fellowship of the College.

Prof Plange-Rhule said as part of decentralisation process, the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, has been accredited for training in internal medicine and has already received its first batch of residents this year.

The Sunyani Regional Hospital and the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital have started training in surgery and family medicine respectively, whilst the Ridge Hospital is ready to commence training in obstetrics and gynaecology, internal medicine and surgery.

The Yendi District Hospital and 37 Military Hospital have also been accredited for training in surgery and Dental surgery respectively.

Other facilities like the Tamale Teaching Hospital and Koforidua Regional Hospital are all in the process of being accredited to offer specialist training while other regional hospitals where local capacity exists for training are yet to be included.

Prof Plange-Rhule said the ability of Ghana to meet its health needs would also depend largely on the training of sufficient numbers of family physicians in a cost-effective way to man regional, districts hospitals and polyclinics.

That is why the College has embarked on various measures to accredit clusters of district hospitals in all regions for training according to their capacity, while corresponding regional hospitals act as supervising training centres.

The Rector also expressed worry over the state of indebtedness of the Ministry of Health and its agencies to the College over the payment of residents (Resident members of the College) fees as the debt continue to grow.

“This is having a crippling effect on the ability of the College to meet its statutory responsibilities and to effectively carry out its mandate.

“The College would like to appeal to the Ministry and other Agencies that have sponsored Residents to make good on their commitments to the College”.

Prof Plange-Rhule said by the first quarter of 2016, the College would launch the establishment of its Medical Museum where it would display artifacts on the history of medicine in Ghana.

Professor Anyetei Lassey, President of the College, also expressed concern over the ban on public employment which he described as among the factors in the worsening doctor-to population ratio in Ghana, which now stands at one doctor to 11,929 people.

The WHO recommends a minimum of one doctor to 1,000 people.

“The Ministries of Health and Education are perilously worst hit by this ban”, Prof Lassey said.

He said the College was in discussions with the sector Ministry to embark on an assessment of the country’s specialist medical and surgical manpower requirement and their projections into the future, vis-à-vis the population growth rate.

Mr Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health, assured the College of the Ministry’s resolve to settles its indebtedness to the College.

He urged the College to come out with strategies that would help deal with mental health problems in the country by helping society adopt new ways of treating mental health within the community.