The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it is unaffected by the decision of the United Kingdom to place Ghana on a list of 54 countries that should not be aggressively pursued for recruitment by health and social care employers.
According to the Association, the decision by the UK will simply dissuade healthcare professionals from engaging mass recruiting agencies, but individuals can have the choice of finding jobs elsewhere.
The announcement was made by the UK government in its new code of practise for overseas recruitment of health and social care employees, published on the NHS Employers website.
The Code of Practise for International Recruitment advises that some developing nations, such as Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Cote dIvoire, should not be targeted when actively recruiting health or social care workers.
An announcement on the NHS website noted that the nations included had a UHC Service Coverage Index that is lower than 50 and a density of doctors, nurses, and midwives that is below the global median (48.6 per 10,000 people).
In an interview with Citi News, the president of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Frank Serebour, called on the government to begin implementing innovative ways to retain healthcare professionals in the country.
“There are still countries that have not been redlisted; you can still move to the United States, you can go to Canada, and the other countries, so for me this doesn’t really change much. I think the pull forces are still there, and folks can be inspired to travel out there and ply their trade.
“We should be putting our house in order to ensure that we are putting in the right measures to attract and retain our health professionals, so I don’t think this changes anything.”