Improving innovative medical education and strengthening the management systems of TTH and affiliated hospitals
NICHE-GHA-082
Sector
Health
Project budget
The maximum budget for this project is € 1.5 million.
Organisations
This project has been developed by the 
University for Development Studies, Department of Nursing School, School of Medicine and Health Sciences (UDS/SMHS). The tender for this project expired on 19 April 2011.
Nuffic has awarded this tender to Maastricht University Mundo.
Project description
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of UDS/SMHS, Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and affiliated hospitals, so they can effectively improve the quality and relevance of medical education. This should produce competent well-adapted medical doctors. More specifically, the project seeks to address the chronic shortage of medical doctors in Northern Ghana, by strengthening the capacities of the only medical school in the area.
This project will:
- consolidate the results of an NPT project at SMHS on Problem-Based Learning.
- strengthen the management and the organisation;
- run a cost-effective academic programme at UDS/SMHS to train degree-level medical doctors;
- strengthen hospital management of TTH Tamale and affiliated hospitals to respond to the innovative PBL medical training and the impact of an anticipated rise in the number of trainees.
The government of Ghana has been making an effort to improve the quality of health care, through several reforms during the past decade. Ghana has one of Africa's more mature education systems for health workers. The system is highly professionalised in terms of pedagogical standards. Despite these remarkable achievements, the current system still faces a number of serious issues.
The three Northern regions account for about 20% of the total population, but they cover nearly half the country and consist of small, scattered communities. The doctor-patient ratio is 1:92,000, compared to 1:13,000 at the national level.
The regions suffer from a serious lack of well-trained health professionals and health facilities have few resources. Filling this gap is critical to the realisation of national objectives to reduce maternal and infant mortality (MDG 4 and 5) in Northern Ghana.