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UM conveys medical knowledge to Ghana
22 June 2011
MUNDO, Maastricht University’s agency for overseas aid is to join forces with the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) for two large projects in Ghana, for which a total of just under 2.5 million Euros has been set aside. The overarching aim of the projects is to improve healthcare in Northern Ghana. For this purpose, and with MUNDO’s support, FHML will be working closely with the University of Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale. In addition, they are to be joined by experts from the AVM University of Midwifery Education and Studies and Zuyd University.
Both projects are funded by NICHE, the Dutch government’s programme for collaboration between higher education institutes and developing countries. The projects are aimed at improving the curriculum of the medicine programmes, the obstetrics programme and paediatric nursing at the University of Development Studies.
Northern Ghana
Northern Ghana is facing many healthcare issues. Ghana’s three northern regions are inhabited by only 20 per cent of the whole Ghanaian population, but cover nearly half the country. The inhabitants live in small communities that are separated by large distances, and this, in part, is the cause of the shortage of qualified health professionals in the northern regions. In those areas, the doctor-patient ratio is 1:92.000, compared to national ratio of 1:13.000. The aforementioned projects are intended to reduce this difference.
Improved medicine programme
The larger of the two projects (with a 1.5 million Euro budget) is to improve the medicine programme at the UDS, by increasing the capacity of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) at the UDS and the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), and of the other associated hospitals where the students receive their practical training. “We have been working intensively with the UDS to develop and improve the basic curriculum of the physician’s course for the past four years. Now, we want to focus on the development of the clinical phase in the fifth and sixth years of the course. We are supervising the SMHS’ organisation of the clinical programme and how it is applied at the TTH and the other hospitals for the medical students”, explains Han Aarts, MUNDO’s director. The aim is to train qualified doctors specifically for Northern Ghana, tackling the chronic shortage of doctors in that area.
Midwives and (paediatric) nurses
Northern Ghana is also struggling with a shortage of midwives and (paediatric) nurses, as well as having too few doctors. The UDS/SMHS is the most important centre in Northern Ghana for training midwives and nurses with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. In conjunction with the AVM University of Midwifery Education and Studies and Zuyd University, this project (budgeted at 850,000 Euros) by the FHML and Mundo is to increase the management and organisational capacity of the UDS/SMHS, set up a better programme for the obstetrics and nursing courses and reinforce the UDS/SMHS staff. The ultimate aim is to increase the number of qualified midwives and nurses in Northern Ghana.
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