The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has acknowledged that it is actively addressing the issues brought on by brain drain, which has a significant impact on the health sector.

Brain drain refers to the emigration or migration of highly skilled or educated individuals from one country to another, often leading to a significant loss of human capital and expertise in the home country. It occurs when talented professionals, such as scientists, doctors, engineers, and academics, seek better opportunities, higher salaries, improved working conditions, or greater career prospects abroad.

Recently, more than 1,200 Ghanaian nurses reportedly joined the nursing register in the UK last year, and 150 experienced nurses and healthcare workers from Pantang Hospital have reportedly looked for work abroad, all in search of greener pastures.

Director General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, explained that brain drain is a significant challenge while speaking at the 2023 Joseph Siaw Agyapong distinguished lecture on public health in Africa, which was held in honour of the University of Ghana's 75th anniversary.

“Brain drain remains a key challenge for us and there are usually ways when there are shortages in the developed countries, there is also the drift of people going there. So what we are doing is first, trying to encourage as many to stay. We are also ensuring that those who are staying are also being trained rapidly.

Elaborating further, he said, “We are recruiting to replace those we can replace while we ensure that we are giving more people, especially the nurses, study leave allocations so that we can convert some of the nonprofessional nurses into professional ones because it is the majority of professional nurses who are leaving,”

Dr Kuma-Aboagye further expressed his concerns regarding the rise in non-communicable diseases in recent years and urged the general public to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

“There are statistics that the number of hypertension are going up, diabetics are going up. We don’t think that a sedentary lifestyle is good, not many people are exercising. There is a lot of junk foods coming in, we need to ensure that we eat proper foods, look at the timing of eating, the use of alcohol, cigarette smoking and aphrodisiac,” he stated.

Taking advantage of the occasion, he urged the media to support efforts to educate the public about the diseases.

Brain drain can have detrimental effects on the development and progress of the home country, as it depletes its intellectual and skilled workforce and hampers its ability to innovate and grow.

It is important to note that addressing brain drain requires a comprehensive approach that combines efforts from governments, educational institutions, businesses, and the society as a whole.

Source: The Independent Ghana | Diana Nutsugah