African-American Medical team in Ghana to explore areas of collaboration

AN African-American medical team from the United States of America is to partner the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) to improve on healthcare delivery in the country.
The partnership, according to the team, would serve as an intervention to the problem of brain drain, which they noted had an increasing impact on developing countries, including Ghana.
This was announced when a five-member delegation from the National Medical Association (NMA), a global health initiative, held a meeting with the leadership of the GCPS in Accra yesterday.
According to the team, the partnership would enhance relations with physicians, surgeons and affiliated organisations in Ghana in the upgrading of healthcare specialists.
The assistance, according to Ms Carolyn Barley Britton, a medical doctor and associate professor at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, was part of the NMA’s global initiative to provide medical expertise for physicians and medical students in Africa.
“The NMA believes that the current state of health care in Africa requires the same kind of response that motivated African-American physicians more than 100 years ago to get organised and fight for equality, justice and timely access to medical care,” she said.
She disclosed that the medical team would share materials from the NMA’s consortium of US-based medical schools and professional organisations to serve as a learning mechanism for health institutions that were not familiar with the needs of the developing world.
The collaboration would further provide opportunities for US physicians to learn more about Ghana and its people and the diseases that were more prevalent in Africa and also provide physicians from Ghana access to new technologies and innovations to supplement their training, she added.
The President of GCPS, Professor Ofosu-Amoah, took the team through the history of Ghana’s medical schools, their challenges and achievements up to the present.
He said since the establishment of a medical school at the University of Ghana, Legon, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the country had not looked back.
Prof Ofosu-Amoah recalled that a survey conducted some time ago indicated that about 90 per cent of trained healthcare specialists were concentrated in two regions in Ghana, adding that to reverse that trend, the college was keen on training specialists to assist regional and district hospitals in the remaining eight regions.
The Director of the college, Professor Paul Nyame, said the college had adopted a step-wise approach where specialists received training for three to four years and could afterwards upgrade their skills, depending on their areas of specialisation.
He said what the college needed was adequate infrastructure and teaching materials and he expressed the belief that through the assistance, all Ghanaians, irrespective of their status, could benefit from quality and affordable healthcare services.