Fears that healthcare services in Ghana are starting to collapse have been raised as specialist nurses are leaving to work in the UK and other countries.
The head of one of the world’s largest nursing groups has claimed the recruitment of nurses by high-income nations from poorer countries is “out of control”.
Last year, more than 1,200 nurses from Ghana joined the UK’s nursing register.
Hospitals in the West African country are struggling to keep staffing numbers up with concerns patients’ lives are at risk as a result.
It comes as the NHS has been relying more on staff from countries outside the EU to fill roles.
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While active recruitment by the NHS in Ghana is not allowed, nurses are easily able to see available vacancies via social media allowing them to apply for jobs directly.
Chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), Howard Catton, is concerned about the impact of nurses being recruited overseas.
Speaking to the BBC he said: “My sense is that the situation currently is out of control.
“We have intense recruitment taking place mainly driven by six or seven high-income countries but with recruitment from countries which are some of the weakest and most vulnerable which can ill-afford to lose their nurses.”
And the head of nursing at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital in Ghana, Gifty Aryee, reported that the intensive care unit had lost 20 nurses to the UK and US in the last six months.
“Care is affected as we are not able to take any more patients. There are delays and it costs more in mortality – patients die,” she told the BBC.
She explained that seriously ill patients were regularly held for longer in the emergency department due to the nursing shortages.
It was a similar story at Cape Coast Municipal Hospital in the south of Ghana.
Deputy head of nursing services, Caroline Agbodza, claimed 22 nurses departed for the UK over the last year.
She said: “All our critical care nurses, our experienced nurses, have gone.
“So we end up having nothing – no experienced staff to work with.
“Even if the government recruits, we have to go through the pain of training nurses again.”
Staff migration is also affecting smaller clinics as just one nurse leaving could have a large impact.
Two experienced nurses recently left the Ewim Health Clinic in Cape Coast, the BBC reports, after finding jobs in the UK.
Smaller clinics are also affected by staff migration because even one nurse leaving a small health centre can have a large knock-on effect.
Chief doctor there at the clinic, Doctor Justice Arthur, commented: “Let’s take services like immunisation of children.
“If we lose public health nurses, then the babies that have to be immunised will not get their immunisation and we are going to have babies die.”
Ghana is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of 55 vulnerable countries, which have low numbers of nurses per capita – as part of the “red list” designed to prevent systemic recruitment there.
Jim Campbell, the WHO’s director of health workforce, said that that Brexit had been a factor in the UK looking to African countries for nurses.
“The labour market is extremely competitive around the world and, having closed off the potential labour market from European freedom of movement, what we’re seeing is the consequences of that in terms of attracting people from the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions,” he said.
The UK government recently gave £15m to Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya to help boost their healthcare workforces but a formal deal could be made with Ghana allowing more proactive recruitment in return for money per nurse.
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