The Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has reiterated the government's commitment to partner with the private sector to provide world-class education that equips students with skills needed for their respective professions."A robust collaboration between the private and public sectors is essential to achieving positive outcomes in education and healthcare service delivery," she said.Speaking at the inauguration of Entrance University of Health Sciences (EUHS)-schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing and a dental hospital on Friday, the Vice President Prof.
Opoku-Agyemang underscored the importance of the private and public sectors collaboration in advancing education and healthcare delivery.The programme was on the theme "Training the next generation of health professionals."She commended EUHS for its commitment to training healthcare professionals who would contribute significantly to national development."I commend you and also encourage you to ensure that there are appreciable number of students clinically trained to meet the huge patient health care services demand," the Vice President urged.She explained that, although Ghana was behind in the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended doctor and dentist to population ratio, the government was aware of the vital preventive and curative health care to families, community and country.Sharing some of the interventions the government was implementing in the health sector, Vice President Opoku-Agyemang mentioned the transition team put together by President John Dramani Mahama to transfer the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) to the University of Ghana.She also mentioned the launch of the MahamaCares Initiative or the Ghana Medical Health and the Trust Fund, as few of the many things being implemented in the sector.The Vice President advised the students of EUHS to emerge from their training stage as "tested and highly motivated professionals" who can lead, improve their status quo and elevate the nation's standard of healthcare.The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said the creation of schools, alongside the investment in clinical infrastructure demonstrated foresight, commitment, and a strong sense of national responsibility by the management of the institution.Mr Akandoh hinted that although progress had been achieved, many communities in the country lacked significant access to medical, nursing, and dental services, due to significant gaps in human health resources.According to him, one of Ghana's most pressing health challenges, was the need to train and deploy more skilled health professionals and to ensure their availability where they were need most.The Founder and Chancellor of EUSH, Nana Samuel Amo Tobbin, said the school was registered in 2018 to operate as a tertiary institution and received their Presidential Charter in 2024 as an autonomous institution.Nana Tobbin indicated that the establishment of the school was to provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the internationally recognized standards of scientific education and to make them succeed in the global market.The Founder urged government, through the scholarship secretariat to consider channelling more funds to the local universities so that more students can enrol in their facilities.Some of the facilities in the school include equipped dental chairs and modern dental hospitals, laboratories, lecture halls, phantom heads, library, student lounge, an equipped morgue, children's area, among others. BY VICTOR A.
BUXTON
