Government to decentralise specialist medical training across Ghana — Health Minister

The Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has announced plans by the government to decentralise specialist medical training and expand postgraduate opportunities across the country for health professionals to be trained closer to where their services are needed.

He made this known at the opening of the 28th Annual Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra.

He said the initiative formed part of efforts to strengthen Ghana’s health workforce and improve access to quality healthcare, particularly in areas where specialist services remained limited.

Mr Akandoh said the government was committed to expanding postgraduate training opportunities beyond the major urban centres to support a more balanced distribution of skilled health professionals across the country.

He said the government would also strengthen competency-based training and ensure that health professionals had the infrastructure and equipment required to practice according to established standards.

According to him, health professionals could not be held fully accountable for the quality of care without providing them with the necessary tools and systems to perform their duties effectively.

“Professional accountability must therefore go hand in hand with system accountability,” he said.

The Minister explained that a competent doctor without functioning diagnostic equipment could not consistently provide the standard of care expected of the profession.

He said the government’s efforts to improve specialist training were part of a broader commitment to achieving universal health coverage, adding that access to healthcare must be matched by quality, competence and patient safety.

He said Ghana was also investing in equipment, specialist training and advanced healthcare capacity, including cardiac services, to strengthen the country’s continuum of care.

Mr Akandoh said the government was expanding healthcare from free primary healthcare focused on prevention and essential services to specialised and high-cost care supported through the Ghana Medical Trust Fund.

He also called for health regulation to keep pace with developments in healthcare, including telemedicine, artificial intelligence and cross-border medical practice.

The Minister said effective regulation should protect the public while creating an environment where health professionals could meet the standards expected of them. He said regulatory systems needed to be responsive in verifying professional qualifications, monitoring licences, handling complaints and setting standards for emerging forms of healthcare.

Mr Akando also called on African medical regulators to strengthen cooperation in credential and licence verification, regulatory intelligence sharing and mutual recognition of qualifications. He said African countries should not have to repeat the verification process when a qualification had already been assessed by a trusted regulator on the continent.

The 28th Annual Conference of AMCOA is bringing together medical regulators and other health sector stakeholders from across Africa and beyond to discuss ways of strengthening medical regulation and improving patient safety. It has the theme, “Responsive Regulation, Safer Communities and Universal Health Coverage.”