City Research Online

Abstract

Background: This study assessed the density and distribution of radiologists across all 16 regions in Ghana to generate reference information for planning and policy formulation to encourage radiology specialisation and in designing systems to improve the dissemination of radiological services across all the regions in Ghana.

Method: A cross-sectional design was used to collect secondary data on all radiologists (n=93) registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana (MDCG) as of December 2022. This information collected on the records of the MDCG was confirmed with records from the Ghana Association of Radiologists. Population and land area data were also collected from the National Statistical Service of Ghana for each region in the country. The Stata statistical software version 15 was used to analyse the data collected.

Results: There were 93 radiologists in the country. The majority were male (n=60, 65%) and about one-third of the radiologists were female. The national density of radiologists was 1.9 radiologists per 5000 km2. Only 3 of the 16 regions in the country had a better distribution of radiologists per 5000 km2. There were 3 radiologists per million people in Ghana with a skewed regional distribution. Seven out of the 16 regions lacked radiologists. The proportion of female radiologists stationed within the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions was 87.9% (29/33). The Bono, Eastern, Northern and Western regions had one female radiologist each.

Conclusions: Actions are needed to improve the shortage and skewed distribution of radiologists. The outcome will help to improve radiological services across all the regions in Ghana.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publisher Keywords:	Radiologists, Ghana, Radiology Human Resources, Low-income country; Imaging
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Midwifery & Radiography
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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