The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the School of Public Health, and the Technical University of Berlin, has launched this year’s Health Policy Dialogue.

The dialogue is on the theme “The Exodus of Healthcare Workers from Ghana; Implication for Skill-Mix and Network of Practice Innovations towards Achieving Universal Health Coverage in Ghana”.

The main objective of the two-day health policy dialogue series is to establish a network of key stakeholders to engage in policy discussions on the future development of the health systems in Ghana.

Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, speaking at the opening ceremony, in a speech read on his behalf, indicated that one of the policy objectives of the health sector is to achieve universal access to a better, efficiently managed, high-quality health system that considers the extent of health service coverage and utilization through the availability of medicines, critical human resource, healthcare facilities, and National Health Insurance Scheme.

He added that the ministry has targeted achieving at least 80% coverage of Ghanaians who have access to essential health services.

He said, “We cannot achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) without the requisite human resources for health. We all know that human resources for health are essential for achieving UHC”.

The Minister therefore lamented that Ghana has one of the highest rates of health worker emigration in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 50% of doctors and 24% of nurses trained in the country now working overseas.

He recounted factors such as low salaries, poor working conditions, and a lack of opportunities for professional development as contributors to the migration of these health workers from Ghana.

He further revealed that the ministry is working with international partners to promote ethical recruitment practices among foreign employers of health workers.

This, according to him, will help to ensure that Ghanaian health workers are not exploited or mistreated when they work overseas.

Participants at the conference will engage in several dialogue sessions to discuss intriguing insights from current research on factors associated with turnover intentions as well as those pushing healthcare workers away from Ghana and those attracting them to other countries; ultimately culminating in the current exodus.