THE MASS exodus of doctors, dentists and other related health workers to seek greener pastures outside the country, has once again engaged the attention of government officials.

To this end, the Minister for Defence, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, has charged medical practitioners who intend leaving the country to seek greener pastures to reconsider and reflect on whether they have been a good investment to the Ghanaian taxpayer.

"The newly qualified doctor should ask himself or herself whether the country's lowly paid workers, farmers, fisher folks and their families, from whose taxes he has been able to acquire quality training as a doctor, will get value for his or her investment. If the answer is no then the Ghanaian taxpayer is getting a raw deal," he said.

Speaking at a ceremony to induct over 1,000 newly qualified medical and dental practitioners and also to award 17 distinguished medical practitioners in Accra last Friday, the Minister also a medical doctor by profession, stated that an estimated $80,000 was needed to train a doctor from the basic school to the university level. He therefore asked the beneficiaries to appreciate it.

Dr. Addo-Kufuor, who was also one of the recipients of the awards, observed that there was no way Ghana, a third world country, could compete with countries in North America, Europe or the Middle East in terms of remuneration and therefore called on health practitioners to have compassion on their own people and remain in the country to work.

Expressing grave concern on the mass exodus of doctors, he said 2,800 doctors left Ghana between 1969 and 2006 and 11,000 nurses had also left since 1996, in addition to a large number of pharmacists, laboratory technicians and other health professionals.

On industrial actions, Dr. Addo-Kufuor advised that it should be the last resort to seeking redress for problems, and that when it became necessary for such an action to be taken, there should be some skeleton medical staff to man the emergency facilities at the hospitals and also care for seriously ill persons.

He pointed out that the government was aware of the challenges facing the health sector and was, therefore, making efforts to confront them, but said in spite of those efforts, the sector still faced many difficulties.

The Minister took the opportunity to commend the West Africa Postgraduate College and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons for their roles in the retention of health professionals in the country.

According to him, because of the well-structured programmes of those colleges, about 789 doctors had, as of now, been attracted to stay in Ghana, because there were facilities for them to undertake their specialization.

The Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), urged the newly registered doctors to learn from the sacrifices their senior colleagues made to serve and do well to continue.

Major Quashigah said it was significant that the two ceremonies were jointly organized so that the young could appreciate how important it was for one to serve his nation diligently.

He reminded the young doctors of how challenging contemporary medical practice had become, especially at a time when patients could question instructions of health workers.

"This time they would want to know the reason for your expert decisions," he pointed out. The Minister said the involvement of what he termed "a third party", which was the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had also complicated the issue, because someone would have to pay for the decisions doctors took.

He acknowledged the fact that the health sector had problems, but added that the government had a vision to transform the sector to one which was capable of fulfilling its mandate.

He said it was sometimes disturbing when one considered the position some of the health personnel took when it came to issues with salaries and allowances, adding that it was better to dialogue than issue threats or embark on industrial actions which they often resorted to.

Minister Quashigah used the occasion to invite the leadership of the health workers for a discussion so as to seek a lasting solution to some of the problems they faced. Other speakers included the Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. K. Adadey.