We are living in a world that is heavily polluted. The fumes of cars, waste from industries, plastic wastes that choke our gutters and many others. You cannot hide from them but you can do something about them.

I learnt this from Bro. Ishmael in one of his church service messages:

1.        For three weeks in the year, eat only vegetables and fruits with a little fish; no carbohydrates, except those that come to you from fruits like bananas.

2.        Continue for another three weeks as before but this time you take about a table spoonful of carbohydrate so that you do not develop glucose intolerance.

Whenever I did this, my body feels energetic in all areas.

When you put on the vision of Nature and study the qualities of men and women as covered in Lesson 1 of Essential Education, you will realize that, unconsciously, women are the causes of conflicts in the world and this is what happens:

Women are emotional and caring beings. In relationship they want to care and especially to care for the man who among other things gives her protection and sexual pleasure. Thus when they have sons, they see their sons as the gender beings who give them pleasure and treat them as gods, seeking to fulfill their every need. When the sons grow as gods, they want subordinates to rule and their wives become their subjects.

There are too many bullying of women by their men. My suggestion is this:

Let every woman raise their sons to respect another woman and we shall have world peace.

 Commentary

The current national debate concerning medical doctors and dentists practicing administration in the various health institutions seems to have divided our opinion leaders. As at 2006, 94 medical doctors and dentists out of 2450 occupied various administrative positions in the country according the 2005 Audit Report of the Health Sector. These include: medical superintendents of hospitals (CEO of hospitals), district directors of health services, directors of regional health directorates and the head quarters of the health services including the Ministry of Health. This was revealed in the 2005 Audit Report presented to Parliament by the Auditor General. The Select Committee on Health in Parliament was not happy to hear that, as debate on the issue was telecast live on national TV

The report thus seems to suggest that these medical and dental professionals do not practice medicine and dentistry once they occupied administrative positions. This is where I believe the misinformation comes from. It is a common knowledge that doctors do offer clinical services in the various institutions apart from the few in head quarters. CEOs of the various health facilities have professional Administrators who are incharge of the non-clinical duties.

Therefore I do not agree entirely that Managerial positions in the health services should not include clinician even if they hold Management degrees or training as additional qualifications. In Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for instance, clinicians occupying headship of departments and specialize units offer 40% of their time for office duties. They do not shelve their clinical duties in any way.

The question still remains whether their presence in administration is desirable. My answer is yes. Medical Doctors and Dentists are most needed in Management in the Health Service. This is because they bring years of experience and empirical research of problems in the theatres and clinics to Management. I can understand why the focus is on clinicians. They are classified as essential staff for now. I believe their total withdrawal from Management will be suicidal.

Apparently those who speak against doctors in Managerial positions refer to different countries whose political economy makes private sector reign supreme (profit is the watch word). Even those countries have managerial problems with their health systems and cannot offer good example.

Management of the entire health systems in Ghana is very complex. Clinicians with their compulsory research / studies to enable them renew their license to practice medicine and dentistry annually places them in a better position to understand the pattern of diseases. Taking decision concerning preventive and curative medicine therefore require everybody's input including clinicians with requisite qualification.