Tamale, Oct. 29, GNA - Eighty-two medical students of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) of the University for Development Studies (UDS) have been inducted at a ceremony to usher them into the clinical phase of their medical training. Twenty-four of them are women.

Addressing the students at the induction ceremony in Tamale on Thursday Prof Haruna Yakubu, the Vice-Chancellor, said this year's induction ceremony was of particular significance because it was ushering in the first batch of students who had studied the methodology of the Problem Based Learning approach to solving problems. He said thismethodology was students' centered, interdisciplinary and community-oriented approach to learning. By using this methodology, the traditional division into pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinical stages is consciously avoided.

Prof Yakubu spoke about the problems students faced during their clinical training at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and to tackle these challenges the university had used part of its internally generated funds to build three lecture halls at the hospital. He appealed to the GETFund to consider the needs of the SMHS, saying medical training was expensive and considering the absolute depravity of the School there was the need for more infrastructure development.

He commended the government for the refurbishment of the Tamale Teaching Hospital and said its early completion would facilitate clinical training and provide efficient health care delivery for the northern part of the country. Prof Yakubu noted with regret that it was only the Tamale campus of the UDS where students did not have hostel accommodation and therefore appealed to corporate institutions which are into real estate development, SSNIT and other financial institutions to invest in that area.

Dr. Edward Gyader, Dean of the SMHS, said the biggest challenge facing the UDS was the lack of pediatricians to teach in the SMHS and appealed to pediatricians in the senior medical schools to accept the challenge and relocate to Tamale. 29 Oct 10