Chairman of BMA unhappy about recruitment of doctors

Cape Coast, Nov. 10, GNA- The Chairman of the British Medical Association, Mr James Johnson, on Wednesday, expressed concern about the recruitment of expatriate doctors by the United Kingdom and other developed countries, to the detriment of effective health care delivery in developing countries.

He said it was "absolutely scandalous", that since the inception of the National Health Service in the UK in 1948, it has "very much relied on expatriate doctors, and that a huge proportion of doctors in the service, were from ethnic backgrounds".

Mr Johnson, expressed this concern, during an interview with newsmen, at the formal opening of the 'Joint 20th Triennial Consultation /Conference of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) and the 46th Annual General Conference of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), at Cape Coast.

The theme for the Conference, which is being attended by about 600 members of the two associations, is: " Achieving Millennium Development Goals: maternal mortality, child survival, HIV/AIDS and gender".

He pointed out that developed countries, should not be relying on poorer countries to train doctors for them, stressing: "we should be "subsidising health care delivery in developing countries, and not the other way round".

Mr Johnson said by now, the UK and other developed countries should have been self-sufficient in medical staff, and that he himself, has officially protested against the situation, adding that his government's policy of ethical recruitment, to stem the recruitment of expatriate health professionals, was not enough.

He said, rather, there should be a policy geared towards self-sufficiency, adding, "if we train more doctors and other heath personnel there will be no vacancies".

According to Mr. Johnson, the UK currently has about 200,000 doctors, including expatriates, listed.