A Chronicle interview with the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Jacob Plange-Rhule, has shockingly revealed that the country is not only experiencing exodus of doctors but also the death toll among them has reached an epidemic proportion.

Dr Plange-Rhule told the Chronicle that over 22 doctors have died within this year, the highest number ever recorded in the doctors’ almanac of Ghana. When the paper inquired about the causes of the death of the doctors, eager to know whether it was caused by heavy work load, the GMA president answered that it was very difficult to establish the factors, adding however, that there were more pressing problems for those still living to address.

“Only two days ago, we were looking at our members who have died and now we have started wondering about it,” he told the Chronicle.

According to Dr Plange-Rhule, some 1,003 or 1,004 doctors are doing the work meant for 4,000 or 5,000 doctors in the country currently. He also bemoaned the situation of nurses, 9,000 of who, he said, are doing the job of 30,000 nurses. This, he said, put massive pressure on the health professionals in the country.

Throwing more light on the problem, the GMA president pointed out that a lot of district hospitals in the country have just one doctor manning them, leaving such doctors with no choice but to be available the whole 24 hours each day for the whole 365 days in the year draining the doctor’s health considerably.

In view of that, Dr Plange-Rhule told the Chronicle that the medical association had been engaged in serious talks with the government to put in place mechanisms that would attract health professionals to remain and work in the country.

He assured that, though some doctors and nurses had left the country, when proper measures are put in place, those health professionals would return to ease the workload on the few currently in the system.

Brain drain in the health sector has been one of the serious challenges threatening Ghana’s aspiration to provide health for all in the foreseeable future. With the devastation caused by malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases raging, it has been feared that the country’s socio-economic growth could seriously be hampered if health workers are not available in their adequate numbers to stem the tide of exodus and the high death rate of medical personnel.

But with 22 of just a little above 1,000 doctors dying in one year, while scores of them troop overseas in search of greener pastures, the hope of bridging the doctor/patient ratio looks bleak.