The Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has announced that the government plans to conduct a validation exercise at the end of February to ensure medical doctors posted to rural communities actually report to their duty stations.
The Minister said the names of doctors who have not reported to their assigned posts after the exercise will have their names removed from the payroll.
“We have said that by the close of February, we are going to do validation, and those who have not reported, we take their names out.
“For example, if we have deployed 700 and then 500 have reported, we still have 200 who have not reported. And then we are going to advertise those spaces again and the next badge; those who have an interest in going to those places, we send them there because that is where we need their services,” he stated.
The move comes on the back of dozens of newly qualified medical doctors refusing postings to underserved communities, giving various reasons.
Addressing the stakeholders at the North East Regional Coordinating Council during a working visit on Thursday, February 26, 2026, Mr. Akandoh promised a special dispensation for any doctor willing to accept posting to any hard-to-reach area.
“…So when any of you, the DCEs, and I have special dispensation for the North East, the Upper West and Northern regions. If any of you come and say Mr. Minister, this is a medical doctor, he is willing and ready to go, so post him, I will do that for you,” he promised.
In his remarks, the Juaboso Member of Parliament, however, acknowledged the challenges for which reason some doctors are adamant to accept postings to underserved communities.
The Health Minister quizzed why some medical doctors are adamant about accepting postings to rural areas and whether there was anything that could be done to change the narrative.
He observed that the lack of accommodation is one of the major reasons why doctors refuse postings to rural areas.
As a result, he charged the district assemblies and all relevant stakeholders to ensure an enabling environment for the doctors accepting postings to their districts.
“We must also begin to reflect on it and ask ourselves why they are refusing postings to those areas. Is there anything we can do? Yes, there’s something we can.
“So we all have to play our roles very well. In all these regions, wherever I have gone, I have gotten the DCEs, the MPs and the Regional Ministers to commit that in any district we are posting a medical doctor to, there’s a befitting accommodation for them,” he emphasised.
