The University for Development Studies (UDS) at the weekend inducted the sixth batch of its medical doctors with a call on them to accept postings to serve the rural poor and work harder to sustain and preserve lives.

Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye, Vice Chancellor of UDS speaking at the induction ceremony, urged the doctors to contribute their quota towards transforming the communities in which they would serve since their training exposed them to rural community life.

He said the UDS School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) had adopted the problem-based learning approach, which was, students centred and based on a given problem for students to research into and find solutions.

He said the SMHS was one of the pillars of the university but lacked adequate staff to handle students, which had been a major challenge for university authorities.

He appealed for the lifting of the ban on employment, especially on tertiary institutions for the university to recruit more lecturers to solve the problem to improve academic work.

He commended the GETFund and the Bank of Ghana for the provision of infrastructure and appealed for more assistance to help change the horizon of the Tamale campus, which had already seen the springing up of four-storey office, lecture and tutorial room complex.

Professor Teye said plans were far advanced for the construction of a two-storey lecture theatre with a library complex at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) for clinical training as means of solving the problem of inadequate teaching and learning space in the medical school.

He advised the graduands not to let their training to be seen as useless since UDS was vouching for the knowledge they acquired, and that the challenges in the outside world were enormous including unwritten rules and expressed hope that they would stand the test of time.

Some deserving doctors were presented with prizes with Dr Alhassan Mohammed Musah emerging as the overall best student. He received GH¢1,000.00 as the Vice-Chancellor’s prize for the best student.