GMA calls for review of utility tariffs

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA, has called on the government, as a matter of urgency, to ensure that the utility tariffs are reviewed downwards, since they have serious health implications on the ordinary Ghanaian.
According to the GMA, the association was against the recent increases in utility tariffs, saying that “the astronomical increases in tariffs as far as water and electricity are concerned, have a huge psychological and financial impact on Ghanaians”.

“Indeed as far as the public sector workers are concerned the increases in tariffs have eroded all gains made by the wage increase for the year 2013”.

It, therefore, supported the position of organised labour in asking that all arrears due its members as part of the current adjustment of basic salaries be fully paid by the end of this year.

The position of the GMA was expressed at a press briefing in Koforidua yesterday on behalf of the association by its President, Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei.

The briefing followed the end of the fifth national executive council meeting of the GMA for 2013.

Dr Opoku-Adusei also expressed concern over dwindling government support for postgraduate medical education in the country.

He stated that as of today, doctors who met the requirement to pursue postgraduate studies were faced with the challenge of sponsorship.

“It is important for the government to recognise the place of postgraduate medical education in stemming brain drain and improving the quality of healthcare delivery”, the association stated.

Dr Opoku-Adusei explained that “it is of essence that government takes full responsibility of safeguarding the health of the nation by making postgraduate medical education accessible”.

The president of the GMA stated that undergraduate medical education in the country was becoming the preserve of the rich as various medical schools had made more than 50 per cent of their entire admitted students fee-paying recently.

“Currently, the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Cape Coast and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Dental School are solely fee-paying with no student on government scholarship,” he added.

He warned that if care was not taken, all the medical schools might soon be turned into fee-paying facilities.

“These fees being charged are so astronomical that the poor Ghanaian cannot afford. As we speak tuition fee alone being charged is GH¢7, 000 per year,” Dr Opoku-Adusei stated.

According to him, Ghana still lagged behind the World Health Organisation’s benchmark for the doctor-to-patient ratio required for effective health delivery in the country, hence this policy of medical education being for sale should be halted before it set the clock of the nation’s health backwards.

“Government should live up to its responsibility by fully sponsoring undergraduate medical education or make available means for individuals to access grants to pursue their dreams of acquiring medical education whilst the government put in proper measures to recoup these loans upon completion of school by the beneficiaries,” he said.

Dr Opoku-Adusei expressed deep worry about the proliferation of sub-standard medicines on the Ghanaian market.

By Nana Konadu Agyeman/Daily Graphic/Ghana