By: Nadia Ntiamoah
The healthcare system is facing a paradoxical crisis — while vast sections of the country grapple with chronic shortages in medical personnel and services, over 70,000 trained health professionals remain unemployed, unable to serve the very system that trained them.
This alarming revelation was brought to the fore by the Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, during a presentation to Parliament, exposing a worsening human resource dilemma within the sector.
For years, Ghana has struggled with poor doctor-to-patient and nurse-to-patient ratios, especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The World Health Organization recommends a minimum doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:1,000, but Ghana falls drastically short, with current estimates placing the ratio around 1:8,000.
The nurse-to-patient situation is equally dismal, underscoring a systemic problem that has persisted despite increased investment in training healthcare workers.
Akandoh’s detailed breakdown shed light on the magnitude of the employment bottleneck.
A staggering 48,878 trained nurses from recent graduating cohorts remain unemployed. Specifically, 15,947 are from the 2021 batch, 17,176 from 2022, and 15,755 from 2023.
Although financial clearance was granted in December 2024 to absorb about 15,000 nurses, the Minister admitted these individuals are still not fully deployed as delays in placing them on the government payroll persist.
Even more alarming is the fate of allied health professionals — a diverse group including laboratory technicians, physiotherapists, radiographers, nutritionists, and others — where 21,570 remain jobless.
According to the Minister, there has been no financial clearance to recruit allied health workers since 2019.
This five-year hiatus in recruitment has not only created a massive backlog but has also spurred a wave of brain drain as many professionals seek employment abroad.
The pharmaceutical sector is not spared either. Currently, 1,621 pharmacists trained in Ghana are unemployed, a result of the same five-year freeze on recruitment.
With only about 4,500 licensed pharmacists currently practicing nationwide, Ghana’s pharmacist-to-population ratio stands at approximately 1:7,500 — significantly below the ideal levels required to ensure safe and effective medication access across the country.
Despite regular calls for increased numbers of doctors, the Minister revealed that over 900 trained medical doctors are awaiting placement. Ghana’s medical schools train an average of 500 to 600 doctors annually, but limited recruitment slots mean many remain idle after years of intense and expensive medical education.
“The problem is, therefore, enormous,” Akandoh stated candidly. “But we are committed to finding solutions to it.”
He added that the Ministry is working to address the backlog while improving health service delivery across underserved communities.
Managed Migration
In response to the deepening crisis, the government is turning to an unconventional but strategic approach — managed migration.
Under this plan, Ghanaian health professionals will be deployed to countries that have expressed interest in their expertise. So far, more than 13 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany, have indicated willingness to recruit Ghanaian nurses and other professionals under ethical migration frameworks.
Akandoh emphasized that while the initiative is a temporary solution, it offers dual benefits: it helps reduce unemployment in the sector and generates remittance income for the country, all while equipping the professionals with international exposure and skills.
The proposed migration model, however, raises critical questions about long-term health planning.
Critics argue that exporting talent, while failing to address domestic gaps in healthcare delivery, could further weaken already stretched services.
