Doctors Angry With Mills

Snippets of information available to The New Independent newspaper say some members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), including some national executives, are seething with anger against President Mills and the National Democratic-led Government over the decision by the President and the Government to allow the former to travel to the United States for a medical check-up. Speaking to The New Independent in separate exclusive interviews, the GMA members expressed their outrage at the decision to allow President John Evans Atta Mills to travel to the United States for a medical check-up, which could easily have been done by doctors in Ghana. According to the Ghanaian doctors, the decision by the President and his government amounted to betrayal of trust and lack of confidence in the professional expertise of the Ghanaian doctors, some of whom they indicated, trained with those in the United States in the same medical training institutions. The angry doctors unanimously said, �if indeed President Mills was travelling to the United States for a medical check-up as he indicated to journalists prior to his departure, then it was not worth it, because there are very senior and better qualified doctors in Ghana who could have done even better than their counterparts in the United States.� A senior Medical Director at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, who pleaded anonymity, said, �Korle-Bu has very senior and better experienced doctors with world-wide standard expertise to handle every aspect of the President�s ill-health and so there would not have been the need for him to travel elsewhere if the decision had been taken to look for a solution to his health problems in Ghana.� �Look my brother, we have vey senior specialist doctors who even consult for other heath facilities outside Ghana, but it is sad that, the impression is created as if Ghanaian doctors are inferior or play second fiddle to those in the advanced countries.� The angry doctors also indicated that, it is equally discouraging for some Ministers of State and Directors as well as the well-to-do to be flown out of the country for medical treatments, which could have been done in Ghana at very cheap cost. The doctors said, moves like that of President Mills and others do not challenge them enough and called for an end to such practice, especially when other people have confidence and trust in Ghanaian doctors and so travel from their various countries to seek solutions to their medical problems here in Ghana.