100 nurses leave Pantang Hospital in search of greener pastures.
?In the last six years, nearly 150 experienced nurses and other health professionals from Pantang Hospital have left the country in search of greener pastures.
100 are specialized psychiatric and general nurses, with the remainder consisting of doctors, pharmacists, technicians, and other experienced healthcare delivery personnel.
According to hospital data, the number of experienced professionals who have left their jobs has been increasing at an alarming rate since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This phenomenon is undermining the government's efforts to strengthen the hospital's workforce by hiring an additional 179 people (including 129 professional nurses) between 2018 and 2022.
According to the data, from a report of eight professionals leaving in 2018, the number gradually increased to 26 personnel in 2020, peaking at 64 practitioners resigning in 2022.
The situation worsened when 11 experienced professionals, including ten nurses and one doctor, resigned in January of this year alone.
According to information gathered by the Daily Graphic, the incident has been reported to the Ministry of Health (MoH) for resolution.
Negative consequences
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the hospital's Medical Director, Dr Frank Baning, stated that the situation was having a negative impact on the hospital's medical department.
"We are currently losing the vast majority of our experienced nurses and other health professionals. "In fact, about ten people leave every month," he said.
Dr. Baning explained that, while the government was adding new employees every year, the number of people leaving was alarming and needed to be addressed.
He claimed that the situation was putting a significant burden, pressure, and stress on the few people who remained to work for the hospital and the country as a whole.
Given the number of people who have quit their jobs in the last two years, the Medical Director believes this is already affecting the hospital's quality of care.
"We have seen the effort of the government to reinforce the workforce but as soon as new recruits are brought on board, the hospital loses more of the experienced hands.
"Last year and this year alone, we have lost 75 people and so, we hope that the government will replace those leaving quickly to ensure efficiency.
"We may see the trend continue this year, as more than ten professional nurses have already left for greener pastures this year," he said.
Professionals are resigning.
The Medical Director noted that the nurses leaving belonged to the professional level.
Dr. Baning stated that in an ideal world, the hospital would require approximately 1,000 professional nurses to provide both mental and general services.
However, he stated that the facility currently has only 286 nurses performing the work of 1,000 people.
"286 is nowhere near what we consider ideal," said the Pantang Hospital Medical Director.
He went on to say that the void left by frequent departures rendered the government's additional recruits insufficient.
Other topics
Collins Kesse, the hospital's administrator, also told the Daily Graphic that, in addition to nurses, the hospital had lost personnel in critical areas such as biomedical engineers, radiographers, and pharmacists.
He stated that as a result of this phenomenon, the hospital hired private individuals and paid large sums of money from its internally generated funds (IGF) to manage its X-ray machines and other equipment.
"As a result, we need the right people in the right mix to make sure the hospital runs at full capacity," Mr Kesse explained.
MoH was notified.
Multiple sources at the Ministry of Health confirmed that the ministry had been fully informed about the Pantang Hospital situation involving nurses and other professionals who were leaving.
However, they stated that the problem was widespread, as most health professionals were leaving the country's borders in search of greener pastures.
This is because the COVID-19 outbreak has created a huge demand for professional health personnel, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), according to the sources.
"The ministry's human resource department is looking into the issues to see if there is any replacement for Pantang and other affected hospitals," one of the sources added.
The government has taken notice.
In an earlier interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said the government had taken notice of the situation and the vacuum created.
"A large number of professional nurses are leaving the country for Europe and other parts of the world. They are primarily taking professional nurses, so there is a need to increase the number of professional nurses across the country," he said.
As a result, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye stated that the government had implemented a number of measures, including increasing study leave for auxiliary nurses and providing amnesty to auxiliary nurses who obtained higher certificates without prior approval from the appropriate authorities.
The GHS Director-General explained that the amnesty would ensure that nurses who genuinely obtained certificates that were appropriate for their skills were promoted from auxiliary to professional status.
Others include a thorough examination of the impact of nurses leaving Ghana for greener pastures.
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