New house officers for Korle-Bu in 14 days as staff shortage stretches doctors

Management of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has announced a new batch of House Officers will arrive at the hospital in two weeks as doctors grapple with a human resource crisis in Ghana’s largest referral hospital.

The exit of about 150 House Officers after completing a one-year training course has left yawning gaps in the human resource supply chain of the hospital.

House officers are fresh doctors who have graduated from Medical School.

They work under resident doctors and consultants who manage the out-patient departments and provide emergency care.

The expired tenure of the House Officers on May 4 means the hospital is 150 doctors short of health service providers.

The house officers had hoped they would be absorbed into the system. They were not and replacements made by the Medical and Dental Council have not been immediate.

The CEO of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Dr. Gilbert Buckle has dismissed reports that services at the outpatient department have been suspended.

"The position of the hospital is not to shut OPD service down," he stressed.

He hospital has also dismissed reports that a freeze on public sector employment is accounting for the inability of the hospital to hire some of the House officers.

"We are trying to organise ourselves to adjust for the gap" the CEO told Joy News Wednesday.

Nonetheless, the management of the hospital are predicting a “longer waiting time” at the OPD, a situation Joy News correspondent Francis Abban has confirmed.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]