Feature

By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho, GHANA

In 2013, the number of doctors on the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) payroll increased from 2,252 in 2012 to 2,615. Consequently, the doctor to population ratio improved from 1 (one) doctor per 11,515 in 2012 to 1 (One) doctor per 10,170 in 2013.

Though there seems to be general improvement of availability of doctors in health facilities, a substantial number are in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions making the distribution skewed away from the regions and districts.

By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho, GHANA

In 2013, the number of doctors on the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) payroll increased from 2,252 in 2012 to 2,615. Consequently, the doctor to population ratio improved from 1 (one) doctor per 11,515 in 2012 to 1 (One) doctor per 10,170 in 2013.

Though there seems to be general improvement of availability of doctors in health facilities, a substantial number are in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions making the distribution skewed away from the regions and districts.

By Alhaji Komba

Martin Michael, on behalf of the Michael family, Monday 29^th June 2015, made an additional donation to Educaid SL Charitable Foundation at their headquarters at 23 Sheriff Drive, Freetown.

In his presentation to the Country Director of Educaid SL, Martin Michael praised the foundation for what he described as a fantastic charitable work they are undertaking under such difficult times the country is going through.

By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho, GHANA

Last year at the time where Ebola was ravaging three West African countries, Ghana was also battling with a cholera scourge which claimed more than 200 lives.

It was a chaotic scene at almost all the public health facilities in, especially, the capital city Accra, as well as in all the other regional hospitals and district health facilities as the disease swept through the country like wild fire from June 2014 to the end of the year and beyond.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara, Freetown

Sierra Leone health sector takes pride in 22 referral hospitals and 1,200 peripheral health units across the country. The structural arrangement of the health system places responsibility on the hospitals to take care of major ailments including surgical operations while the PHUs which include community health centres and maternal child health posts provide basic medical services to the communities in which they operate.

By Abdul Tejan-Cole and James A. Goldston 

For some, the flight of President Omar al-Bashir from a military airfield in South Africa on Monday morning was another blow to the prestige of the International Criminal Court, which has indicted the Sudanese leader for mass atrocities in Darfur. Al-Bashir’s ignominious departure came even as a South African judge was hearing arguments on whether the government was legally obliged to arrest him and hand him over to the ICC.

By Judd-Leonard Okafor

Intro: Vaccination programmes nationwide could come under pressure when present cash-backed funding runs out. Experts have predicted chaos for the health system in that event. Concern has prompted the setting up of a task force to consider private-sector involvement to finance Nigeria’s vaccine requirement.

Interviewee: Dr Ben Anyene, Microbiologist, Physician, and Public Health consultant for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) responsible for immunisation programmes nationwide.