Accra, July 21, GNA - The UNILIVER Foundation for Education and Development on Wednesday presented scholarships to five postgraduate students of the College of Health Sciences.

The scholarships, which are estimated at one thousand dollars a year per student, were the first in the series of awards by UNILIVER to the College.

Beneficiaries were Stephen Sai Sagoe, Enid Owusu, Lydia Aziato and Jacob Mensah Attipoe, whose studies ranged from three to five years. Mr Andrew Quayson, Chairman of the Foundation, said the decision of the Trustees of the Fund to support the local training of graduate medical officers was based on the urgent need to train and retain more of the country's health personnel.

He said the Foundation had set up a scholarship grant at the College of Heath Sciences to complement that of the College's Endowment Fund to assist Medical students.

Mr Quayson expressed regret at the exodus of doctors from the country for greener pastures and said; "since it costs about 90 million cedis to train a medical doctor, they must be enticed to stay home and cater for the health needs of the taxpayer".

He said currently the doctor to population ratio in the country remained as high as one to 10,000 compared one to 450 in the developed economies.

He said the Foundation had set up a series of programmes to provide the medical needs of the country and it would monitor the progress of their beneficiaries.

Professor Seth Ayettey, Provost, College of Health Sciences, appealed to members of Club 100, a group of top Business Executives to adopt three medical students, each year to help the College to produce more medical personnel.

He also called for more support for postgraduate training "since studies have shown that all those who pursued postgraduate courses locally stayed in the country to work".

He explained that the College through its Endowment Fund was supporting Medical students, who applied for assistance, but the College needed external help to be able to fully serve all applicants.