Bagbin justifies selection of student doctors

Page 33: Daily Graphic, May 31, 2012 Story: Albert K. Salia The Minister of Health, Mr Alban Bagbin, says the selection of 250 students to be trained as medical doctors in Cuba is in line with the government’s policy of equitable distribution of health personnel across the country. He explained that the cost to be borne by the Ghana government was also in line with Cuba’s new policy that beneficiary countries of its health training paid for the services, effective this year. Members of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), at a press conference on Tuesday, had raised questions over the cost involved, the selection criteria and the secret nature in which the entire agreement had been struck with the Cuban authorities. The alliance described the deal between the governments of Ghana and Cuba as “obnoxious and stinking” and raised concerns over not only the cost involved but also the discrimination and nepotism that were used in the selection of the beneficiary students. But Mr Bagbin told the Daily Graphic: “The list, as I have it, does not indicate political party affiliation nor even listed as regions.” He said the list only indicated the number of beneficiaries based on the government’s policy on “need-factor to serve deprived areas”. On why the government was bearing the cost, he said it was the Cuban government that issued a new policy only this year, requiring all beneficiary countries of its scholarship schemes to pay for the cost of the training as a result of the economic impact of the training on that country. He said Angola and Nigeria, which had been the highest recipients of the Cuban government’s benevolence, were also paying for the training of their health personnel, effective this year, saying that “this can be verified”. Mr Bagbin explained that the cost of training to be borne by the Ghana government was $11,500 per year per student for the first two years and $11,000 per year for the remaining years. The cost to be borne by the government, he said, included the feeding, accommodation and other needs of the students. He wondered why anyone would want to link students who had just completed their second-cycle education to political party affiliation or leanings. “It is possible many of them may not have even voted in Ghana’s elections and I wonder how anyone can predict their political commitment to the National Democratic Congress (NDC),” he said. Mr Bagbin said if the Kufuor administration, which he claimed had sent students to be trained as doctors in Cuba, had done so on political party affiliation, the NDC government was doing so on need-factor. “For eight years under the Kufuor administration who heard that the administration was sending students to Cuba to be trained as doctors?” he asked.