Accra, July 10, GNA - Ghanaian doctors and dentists based in the United Kingdom have agreed to take turns in visiting home to provide free medical services for a period of time starting from next year. This is to help make a real difference in all specialties both at the primary care to the tertiary care levels, Dr Anthony Annan, President, Ghanaian Doctors and Dentist Association of the United Kingdom (GDDAUK), said on Tuesday.

He said the Association aimed at making progressive, practical and sustainable contribution to the health delivery system in Ghana to benefit all.

"This vision is not going to be just a talking shop of an organization, but an organization which can be relied upon to deliver," Dr Annan said when he presented over 500 textbooks on medicine and medical journals to the Ministry of Health.

He thanked the Government of Ghana for waiving taxes on the books thus making it possible for them to be cleared easily. The medical books and journals are to be distributed to the Ghana Medical School and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr Annan explained that the books and journals were contributions of members of the Association at their first annual meeting and fund raising event in 2006, which brought together senior colleagues and eminent professors of medicine and many other Ghanaian health practitioners based in the UK.

He said apart from the volunteering services, he was linking up with other colleagues in Ghana to establish a Centre of Sports and Exercise Medicine in the near future, which was his field of expertise. Dr Annan said the Association hoped to develop, facilitate and implement innovative programmes to meet the medical, surgical and dental challenges in Ghana and also harness the resources of its members towards health promotion and delivery.

He said GDDAUK would collaborate with their colleagues in Ghana and in the Diaspora in the exchange and dissemination of medical and dental knowledge, advance the promotion and study of research, evidence-based medical and dental practice and contribute to the shaping of health care policy through interactions with their colleagues in government, businesses and the health care industry.

Dr Annan said it was their aim to help stem the brain drain in the health care system and eventually reverse it and transfer their medical skills back to Ghana.

Mr Dan Osman Mwin, Public Relations Officer, MOH, who stood in for the Health Minister, thanked the Association for showing loyalty to the nation and pledged the Ministry's support for all their programmes. He said though the issue of brain drain had been condemned by most Ghanaians over the past years its good aspects were yet to be reaped. Mr Mwin said the Ministry would set up an office in Ghana for the Association to encourage other Ghanaian health experts living in other countries to also come home to support health care delivery in the country.