Some 9,000 nurses and midwives in the country have expressed their frustration with government’s delay in employing and posting them to the various health institutions across the country.
They lamented that two years since completing their training, they are yet to be posted by government.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News, the National President of a group of nurses, calling themselves the Ghana Nurse Midwife Trainee Association, Batiah Sami-Ulah Santi, said they had already obtained the necessary clearance and documentation but are yet to be assigned to health centres.
[contextly_sidebar id=”aIMfeOq25FBwpI0kcbVbMPzjSkHfGElg”]According to Batiah Sami-Ulah Santi, the Ministry of Health has shown little interest in posting them although the nation needs their services.
They were the first groups of nurses who completed the training without the allowances and hence were not bonded.
“We are about 9,905 in number. These nurses have been at home for more than 15 months now and are still not being engaged by government.”
He said when the president’s attention was drawn to their “he directed the Minister to respond.”
“The Minister while in front of the president stated that they had almost exhausted the 2017 budget but they look forward to adding this group of nurses to the 2018 budget to get them employed, hopefully, by the first quarter of 2018. We thought that was convincing because we had met with the president and he has given his word on it and right now we are in February. The Ministry of Health is not making any progress or saying anything positive about engaging us,” Batiah Sami-Ulah Santi added.
Bonded jobless nurses picket again at Health Ministry
Scores of bonded unemployed nurses and midwives earlier on Tuesday besieged the premises of the Ministry of Health to demand posting.
The trained health professionals said they have been idling at home for the past two years after successfully leaving school and completing their mandatory national service.
The spokesperson of the group, Daniel Obuor, told Citi News that the Ministry had failed to respond to their various letters over their unemployment.
“We have been here several times and each time we come they will tell you they are working on it. They will say go and come the next day… We just went there are they are still telling us that they don’t have our list. We are having challenges. We are now burdens in our homes,” he said.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin