A tech-forward healthcare system, Carepoint, has launched the CarePoint Institute for International Training (CIIT) in Ghana to train global health professionals, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) projects a global shortage of 11 million health workers by 2030.
The institute seeks to reposition Africa as a destination for medical training while introducing an experiential model that emphasises exposure over certification.
Explaining the rationale for the initiative, the Chief Executive Officer of Carepoint, Dr Sangu Delle, said the demographic realities of Africa place the continent at the centre of future global health workforce development.
This, he said, makes it necessary for African institutions to define the terms of global health training rather than depend on external systems.
The launch brought together healthcare professionals, policymakers, academics, development partners and students.
Global workforce gap, Africa’s role
Speaking at the launch last Tuesday, Dr Delle explained that the establishment of CIIT was a direct response to the growing global shortage of health workers.
He cited projections indicating that by 2050, Africa would account for more than 85 per cent of the net increase in the world’s working-age population, with one in three young people globally expected to be African.
He said the issue was not whether Africa will contribute to training the global health workforce, but whether it will shape how that training is delivered.
“The question is not whether Africa will train the next generation of health workers.
We will, demographically speaking.
The question is who sets the terms?” he said.
Dr Delle said the institute represents a shift in global health education by positioning the country as a destination for training international professionals.
He explained that the idea builds on a long history of informal international training in Ghana, particularly through Rabito Clinic, where foreign students have undertaken clinical exposure due to the range of medical cases available.
“What we are doing today is taking the idea that already existed and has been practised for decades and giving it the scale and institutionalisation that it deserves,” he said.
Dr Delle said CIIT formed part of a broader strategy by Carepoint to expand healthcare education across Africa, referencing existing initiatives, including nursing training programmes and residency systems in other countries.
He said partnerships were being developed with global institutions to support curriculum development and clinical standards, while local collaborations with regulatory bodies would guide accreditation efforts over time.
He added that the institute aimed to train at least 1,000 international health professionals by 2030, describing the target as a commitment rather than an aspiration.
Structure, objectives
A former head of department of medicine and therapeutics, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Professor Jonathan Herbert Addy, said the institute has been designed to address long-standing challenges in international health training, including weak structure, lack of reciprocity and poor integration with local health systems.
He said the vision of the institute was to become a leading platform for high-quality international health training that fosters cross-cultural learning, strengthens health systems and promotes innovation in healthcare delivery across Africa.
Prof Addy explained that CIIT would operate three main programmes, including clinical rotations and exchanges that offer supervised hands-on exposure in healthcare facilities, global health rotations focusing on public health systems such as maternal health and infectious disease control, and a health technology component that would allow training sessions to be accessed globally through digital platforms.
History
The founder of Rabito Clinic, Naa Prof Edmond N Delle, traced the development of international collaboration in the country’s health sector to partnerships spanning more than five decades.
He explained that the new programme builds on these earlier efforts but introduces a more structured approach.
“This programme is for people outside Ghana who want to experience a health system they are not exposed to in their own countries.
It is about exposure, reflection and networking, not certification at this stage,” he said.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
