The District Director of Health Services in Wa East in the Upper West Region, Dr Kingsley Pascal, has called on the Ghana Health Service to improve facilities in the district to encourage doctors to accept postings there.
In his view, the decision by some doctors including indigenes to reject postings to Wa East is unfortunate.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, March 7, Dr Pascal said though there is hope in getting some doctors to move to the District, the conditions are not encouraging.
“We have gotten a few postings but when they come, they see the place, they go and don’t come back… It is not a lost cause, we have taken some moves, and we have taken some of our staff to the medical school, but these are long-term moves. We are still looking around, and we are still trying to convince potential doctors. In fact, there are doctors from that locality, in fact the recent doctor who declined posting there is actually from the place where we wanted to station him.
“I am a doctor, and I am living there, and I cannot say that the district is so much deprived. It is deprived in a way, but I won’t say that it is totally deprived that a doctor cannot live there because I am living there, and providing services there.”
Dr Pascal confirmed that the road network in the district is in a very bad state while the telecommunication network in the area is not up to standard compounding the challenges in the area.
He, however, expressed hope that conditions in the district will be improved to help convince some doctors to move to the area.
Dr Pascal provides services to over 90,000 residents in the district which serves approximately 10 health centres.