Ghana's Medical and Dental Council flags mental health and substance abuse crisis among doctors

Ghana's Medical and Dental Council, the statutory body that regulates the training and practice of doctors and dentists nationwide, has disclosed that a significant number of registered practitioners are struggling with psychiatric conditions, while others are undergoing treatment for drug dependency, raising fresh concerns about both practitioner welfare and patient safety.

What the Council says
According to the Council's Registrar, Dr Divine Banyubala, roughly 30 percent of the affected doctors are dealing with schizophrenia, while the remainders are managing personality disorders, depression, or substance abuse and addiction. He said a troubling number of cases involve dependency on Tramadol, morphine, pethidine and heroin, with some practitioners misusing multiple substances simultaneously.

Some reports circulating on the issue have cited more specific figures, including that 17 doctors are currently affected by mental health conditions and 12 are receiving treatment for drug abuse; those exact counts could not be independently corroborated against the Council's own public statements, though they are broadly consistent with the pattern Banyubala described.

A structured response, not just a disclosure

The Council said it has established a dedicated Practice Committee, which operates through a Health Assessment Panel made up of senior medical professionals, to manage affected practitioners rather than simply penalize them.

Banyubala said early intervention has proven highly effective, with around 80 percent of affected doctors able to return to full functioning once treated, while a smaller number are too far advanced in their condition to safely resume practice.

Doctors who fail to comply with treatment, or who are assessed as unfit to practice, have their licences suspended until they recover sufficiently to resume duties safely, a measure the Council frames as protecting patients while still giving practitioners a path back to their careers.

A regional pattern worth watching
Ghana's disclosure fits a broader, under-discussed reality across West African health systems: physicians operate under intense workload, chronic understaffing and high emotional strain, yet mental health support structures for the profession itself remain thin. Ghana has fewer than 40 practicing psychiatrists for a population of over 30 million, a scarcity that likely affects how well even doctors themselves can access timely psychiatric care. The disclosure also lands amid wider regional conversations, from Nigeria to the Sahel, about the mental health toll of practicing medicine in under-resourced systems, and about the stigma that keeps many affected professionals from seeking help until a crisis forces the issue into the open.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

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