A neurosurgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital says the reason why he may eventually venture into politics will be because of the huge gap he has realized in Ghana’s health care system.
Dr Hadi Abdallah told Lexis Bill on Personality Profile on Joy FM’s Drivetime show that the country has a woeful deficit in medical specialists, a situation which has been amplified more with the arrival of the novel coronavirus in Ghana.
“And it’s all because as a country, over the years, we have not really invested in training professionals. So some of the doctors who would have to manage the Covid-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit are those neurosurgeons also need to give anaesthesia.
“You can’t perform good neurosurgery without specialist physicians and anesthetists, and that is what the country is lacking,” he said.
According to him, the country for instance has only 17 neurosurgeons and about 80 percent of them operate at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, thus posing a challenge to hospitals in other parts of the country.
“So this afternoon I was actually telling my head of department that if I had the power – and probably that is one of the things that may push me into politics one day, I am going to drive the training of specialists in this country and make Ghana’s health care system one of the best on the continent,” he said.
Dr Abdallah explained that through vigorously training well-motivated students in the sciences, Ghana could potentially churn out globally recognised medical specialists whose contribution to the country’s health care system would ensure world class health delivery services.
“Probably using myself as an example and going to the communities, getting well motivated students, putting them in school and spreading them across the world to train to become one of the best surgeons and medical specialists and coming back to help,” he said.
He added, “We really, really need to train lots of people. It is unforgivable that for example there are only 17 neurosurgeons. It is unforgivable that we have only a few physician anaesthetists and Korle Bu alone has 80%, so you could imagine what is happening to areas like Komfo Anokye teaching hospital and other hospitals.”
The internationally recognised neurosurgeon, however, entreated current politicians to heed to his advice and make major moves to improve Ghana’s health care system.
