FIVE out of nine general medical practitioners at the Sunyani Regional hospital have left the country for the UK, Ireland and the USA since the beginning of this year to seek greener pastures.

A sixth doctor has applied for a study leave to enable him pursue further studies abroad.

This has left the hospital with only three general medical practitioners who have no option but to cope with the weekly attendance of 1,000 patients. The problem has also been compounded by the departure of 15 nurses at the same hospital for the UK since January, this year, to seek greener pastures. Dr Daniel Asare, the Medical Director of the Sunyani Regional hospital, made this known to newsmen at Sunyani on Tuesday.

He said something concrete must be done to curb the exodus of the doctors in the region, whose number stood at 25 last year but has now reduced to 17. He noted with concern that presently the Wenchi and Kintampo hospitals have no doctors while Goaso and Bechem hospitals have a doctor each attending to the large numbers of patients who patronise the hospitals. Dr Asare said “the situation at the Sunyani Regional hospital in particular and the region in general is precarious as the few general practitioners who work throughout the day also have to work at night”, stressing, “a tired doctor is a dangerous doctor”.

He said if nothing concrete is done to curb the exodus, there will be no doctors to man the hospitals in the region as agents flood the area all the time to lobby the health personnel to join the exodus bandwagon. As a solution to the exodus of doctors to the developed countries, Dr Asare suggested to the government to improve the service conditions of medical personnel and also speed up the establishment of the Post-Graduate Medical College, which has been on the drawing board for years.

He urged politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition to bury their differences and lobby parliament and the government to commission the new regional hospital at Sunyani which, he said, is about 25 per cent complete, for use.

According to him, two of such hospitals at Cape Coast and Ho were commissioned for use when they reached a similar stage.

He appealed to the traditional rulers to impress upon the citizens of the region to donate generously towards the running of the hospital. The Paramount Chief of the Sunyani Traditional Area, Nana Bosoma Asor-Nkrawiri II, on his part, appealed to the Ministry of Health to appoint new doctors to replace those who have vacated their posts.

Nana Nkrawiri, who is also the chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Sunyani Regional Hospital, further appealed to the government not only to improve the remuneration of doctors, nurses and para-medical personnel, but should also provide them with residential accommodation in order to retain them. He also urged the MOH to speed up work on the new regional hospital in Sunyani to cater for the growing population in the region.