Summit Spotlight: Reginald Sekyi-Brown

Reginald Sekyi-Brown

Chairperson of the Early Career Pharmaceutical Group under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Society, Ghana

SUMMIT SPOTLIGHT An interview with Reginald Sekyi-Brown, Pharmacist & Chairperson of the Early Career Pharmaceutical Group under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Society, Ghana In this third interview ahead of the UNITE Global Summit 2024, Reginald Sekyi-Brown addresses the devastating impact of workforce shortages on healthcare systems and the need for stronger collaboration among African governments to create sustainable solutions and retain talent within the continent.

There seems to be a wave of emigration of young African health professions away from the continent for better opportunities elsewhere, mostly in Higher-Income Countries. What’s the general picture looking like, and why is this particularly worrying?

RSB: This is obviously a critical issue for any person, especially within the healthcare observatory space. Because in healthcare, beyond the brick and mortar, you have what you call the human resource.

So you could have so many hospitals being built either through government subventions or donor support. But when you do not have a commensurate health human resource component, then you lose the essence of the brick and mortar to start with.

Currently in Ghana we have several groups of health professionals - we have pharmacists, medical doctors, nurses, midwives and, and so on and so forth. For context, health professionals have always migrated out of the continent just like other professionals. The era of military coups in Africa, led to migration of several health professionals.

More recently, with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, more deficits have been created across the health services delivery space and as a result, there is demand for more human resources. Developed countries have thus decided to look elsewhere to compensate for the losses.

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Already in Africa, you have a system where most health professionals in country do not have very good remuneration and conditions of service. There is hardly any guarantee of employment within a year or two after graduation and as a result this creates some agitations. Once you have a developed country seeking such professionals, it becomes easy.

Again, Europe's ageing population calls for more careworkers and typically migrant healthcare workers take up these jobs. Specifically for pharmacists in Ghana, a Doctor of Pharmacy programme requires one to stay about six years in training with barely no guarantees of a good job afterwards.

Beyond Ghana, Africa has a deficit of about 6.1 million health professionals across board, especially within the primary healthcare systems.

At a recent LetsTalkHealth Africa webinar hosted by UNITE, there were calls for African governments through the African Union, Africa CDC to work together to resolve this problem.

How do you imagine this happening?

RSB: Although Africa is heterogeneous continent, we need to be able to homogenise

the solution in the way that we have in the past with harmonisation programmes in regulation.

For example, we have harmonisation programmes in education and training. This is why we have the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons.

I'm particularly skeptical, especially knowing that after so many years, the Abuja Declaration which set a 15% target of national budgets on Governments to be invested in health has not fully materialized. The WHO Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter provides some pointers on this; prioritisation, alignment, investment and then sustainability, if I recall correctly.

African governments must recognize this and work together on a framework that ensures equitable contributions from various states.

Some have pointed to the interdependence and intersectionality of global health with COVID-19 epidemic as a case study. As a result, do you think that Higher-Income Countries and international organizations like WHO have any role to play here in addressing the issue of emigration of Africa’s health workforce?

RSB: I believe that the WHO and Higher-Income countries bear some responsibility in tackling this growing problem. Ethical recruitment procedures ought to be put in place to check the massive depletion of Africa’s health workforce. Ethical in the sense that those taking from Africa’s health workforce must have a commensurate policy running to ensure that a replenishment programme is in place to make up for the massive losses.

The UNITE Global Summit continues to prioritize the voice of parliamentarians. How pivotal do you think parliamentarians are in addressing critical global health concerns?

RSB: Interestingly, I attended the annual General meeting of the Breast Society of Ghana recently where I found several parliamentarians in attendance too. It was refreshing to see that but who knows, it may also be because it is an election year. Regardless, parliamentarians contributed to discussions about health financing and how they could use their platforms to mobilize and support women’s health. But in all, what is important is their ability to intervene in health through their legislative powers.

In particular, at the subcommittee levels, parliamentarians could be extremely important in budget allocation and health financing, in international and regional level discussions and collaborations where they can mutually learn best practices. Parliamentarians can also take up causes in health and become champions for it. Just as it is in anti-corruption crusades, parliamentarians can also take up causes like cancer, dialysis, etc. Parliamentarians can again utlilize their personalities and offices to mobilize their communities to promote preventive healthcare among others. It all comes down to prioritization.

In wrapping up, what is your charge or call to parliamentarians and other global health stakeholders going into the UNITE Global Summit 2024?

RSB: I recall as a student of history that there were moments in the past when, in academia, scholars of global repute from the global north would come to Africa (Ghana) to work and to conduct research. I do not see why that kind of exchange cannot be replicated in the health sector.

Africa could become the ‘mecca’ of health professionals so much so that whenever a young person wakes up or decides that they want to be a health professional wherever, they would have it and the continent would not have to lose anything for it.. So for me, I think my major ask will be that we should create an Africa which becomes a ‘mecca’ for health and then we become a reference point for healthcare and not the other way around.■

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