The Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo, has taken steps to address accommodation challenges faced by newly posted doctors in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
This follows the MP’s decision to rent two two-bedroom houses within the municipality for doctors posted to provide healthcare services in the area.
Accommodation for medical doctors has been identified as one of the major factors discouraging many from accepting postings to parts of the Upper East Region.
Recently, the Minister of Health toured the country to engage stakeholders on ways to improve the living conditions of doctors who accept postings to the region.A key focus of the engagements was finding immediate solutions to accommodation challenges facing doctors posted to the region.
It is in response to this challenge that Mr. Adongo has secured the two houses to accommodate doctors posted to the municipality.
While handing over the houses to the Ghana Health Service in the Bolgatanga Municipality, Mr. Adongo noted that the houses are not intended to serve as permanent accommodation for doctors.
He explained that the houses are meant to accommodate newly posted doctors for up to one year, by which time they are expected to have settled in and secured more permanent accommodation. Newly posted doctors arriving thereafter will then be able to use the facility.
“The Health Minister drew my attention to two doctors struggling to get accommodation and I immediately started looking for a decent place. So, these two houses are ready for the doctors. This is now the property of the Municipal Health Directorate. We want you to take good care of our doctors and I expect that this will be a transit quarters not a permanent one. If they stay for a year or two then we assist them to get a permanent place so newly posted doctors can be accommodated here.” He disclosed.
Simon Effah Adjei, Acting Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service for the Bolgatanga Municipality and Senior Disease Control Officer, said the facility would help address the accommodation challenges newly posted doctors often face in securing decent housing.
