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wait for your turn”. I have also said that another way to diffuse it is
to have dialogues. I will have once a month tuo zafi session with
the former President Kufuor and former President Rawlings. We
must work together. You've had your turn, you've gone but you
still have something to offer. I think these are issues that in my
mind people feel alienated or marginalised in the governance
process. We must at all times be mindful of the fact that there are
other people there who don't feel they are part of it and it is our
responsibility to make them feel they are part of it.
Kwaku Asante Krobea, GRNA:
Dr President-to-be, I was enthused about your mention of issues
relating to health professionals and nurses and the fact that you
said you are going to ensure that health training institutions that
train our professionals are strengthened. And I guess you are
familiar with the problems at the moment about the training of
professionals.
I can tell you for a fact that over the past four years, the number of
health training institutions has grown by about 60% and some of
the problems lead to lack of infrastructure. As we turn out the
students how we can fairly distribute them to ensure that all
regions have their fair share of these professionals especially
nurses. Please tell me what you are going to do differently.
Dr. Mahama:
Increasing the numbers of training institutions is a welcome idea
and as you have said, the infrastructure is the next step.
So far as the situation is concerned we have in our manifesto the
issue of growth pole and urban renewal. That growth pole is
targeting certain district capitals to put the basic minimal
infrastructure in them. And I always use Tema as an example;
when I first came to Tema it wasn't as big as it is now. Tema was a
fishing town that Dr Nkrumah took and turned into a model town.
If we do that with the districts, it will be easier to go to live in a
district.
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Those are some of the things that we need to do to encourage them.
You can't force them but I always use the Indian example. When
India was training people, people were laughing at them. Do you
know that most Indian physicians and nurses in UK and in the
United States are going back And indeed, they have gone back
with such expertise that people are leaving Europe and America to
go to India for care, because it is cheaper. If we put these systems
in place, they will come home. Your question is loaded, I am a
healthcare professional, I know the problems just give me the
mandate; I will try and fix it.
Dr. K.B. Darkwa, President of the Ghana Veterinary Medical
Association:
I was very glad to hear you say you are going to continue with the
good policy of the school feeding programme and specifically you
will continue to give chicken-home grown ones. Actually this is a
laudable policy. However it calls for an increase in the population
of poultry and an increase in effective animal healthcare. But
presently in Ghana, animal healthcare is on the decline. I can tell
you for a fact that presently in Accra laboratories, diseases like
rabies are being diagnosed. About six of them positive every
month. Anthrax is raging all over in the north. This is because
veterinarians are working under harsh conditions and this was
due to the fact that in 1997 a policy which was introduced by the
World Bank called the Unifying Agric Extension Policy fused
Veterinary Service Department under the agricultural sector and
therefore vets are working now under agriculturalists.
We are not agriculturalists, we are health professionals. The
difference with the medics is that we are health professionals for
animals. There is a saying by one of the Russian professors that
veterinary medicine treats many. All of you here might have taken
egg, fresh milk, meat, which will have been inspected by a vet. If
we don't do our work well you will get diseases and you will run to
the medical officer.
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