Cabinet Approves Training Of 250 Ghanaian Doctors In Cuba

Cabinet has approved the training of 250 Ghanaian doctors in Cuba early next year, Mr Haruna Idrissu, Acting Health Minister, announced in Accra on Thursday. The training is to help close the wide doctor- patient ratio gap, he said, adding, the Government had taken a cue from the on-going doctors' strike . The Acting Health Minister announced this when the Turkish Health Minister, Dr Recep Akdag, called on him in Accra to strengthen bilateral relations and share ideas to improve the health sector. He said it was unfortunate that Dr Akdag arrived in Ghana at a time when doctors were on strike which was "unethical and illegal, he however renewed his appeal to them to respect their ethics, calling and resume work. Mr Idrissu asked the Turkish Health Minister to consider the possibility of training about 200-300 health practitioners in various disciplines for Ghana as well as help Ghana acquire about 15 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment on concessionary loan from the Turkish Government. �Ghana would want to benefit from Turkey�s health sector experience,� he added. Dr Akdag said though Turkey could not be said to have one of the best health care system in the world, the sector was doing remarkably well with a per capita of 600 dollars and noted that Turkey would help Ghana in infrastructure, equipment and capacity building especially, in ambulance service. He called for a joint committee to set the ball rolling for the specified areas of interest and mutual cooperation but on the training of doctors, he said feedback would be given after his return to Turkey. In Turkey, health professionals are paid based on performance, he said, and suggested Ghana took a cue from it.