An acute shortage of doctors has hit the Jirapa municipality of the Upper West Region.

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The Municipality, with a population of over 120,000 is currently depending on only two doctors because the other four are on study leave.

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The Jirapa Municipal Director of Health, Florence Ansongwmine speaking at a media encounter said the situation is negatively impacting healthcare delivery in the area.

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“Patients have to wait longer at the OPD for two doctors to attend to them. They are overwhelmed with the cases that come. It has resulted in some doing self-medication so we are appealing that we get more doctors and more specialists."

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"There are young doctors and they are overwhelmed. They work 24 hours, seven days a week. If we overuse them, they will break down. It may even scare them, they will decide to go to other places.”

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The shortage of doctors is a challenge faced by most hospitals in the country.

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In 2017, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the Ashanti Region suspended new emergency admissions following an acute shortage of doctors at the facility.

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This was captured in an internal memo issued by the directorate of surgery to the Chief Executive Officer of the hospital and sighted by citinewsroom.com

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The memo stated that management of the facility arrived at the decision following an emergency meeting convened to review the impact of the shortage on their delivery.

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Source: citinewsroom.com

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