The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has dispelled claims that the governing New Patriotic Party re-introduced the quota system for nursing training institutions because of the cost of restoring allowances to trainee nurses in the country.<\/p>\n
A circular from the Nursing and Midwifery Council to the 75 nursing training institutions in the country said the admission quota for this year will reduce by almost 1600<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”7NIa4myJUiyzkLpil17CEIIbr2QIoTCI”]Some critics especially members of the opposition National Democratic Congress have suggested the government was reneging on its campaign promise<\/strong><\/a><\/span> by reducing the number of students instead of restoring the allowances to the students, but the Health Minister said those assertions are not true.<\/p>\n Speaking at a press briefing in Cape Coast in the Central Region on Wednesday, Mr. Manu said the move is rather aimed at \u201cresolving the equity imbalance\u201d within the system.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout the seemingly different interpretations and twists individuals and some groups are giving to the announcement the Ministry wishes to bring to the attention of the public the rationale behind this human resources planning the aim of which is to leverage admissions into the various health training institutions and resolving the equity imbalance. Neither the reintroduction of nurses\u2019 allowances nor the picketing at the ministry’s premises by non-posted nurses informed the basis for the quota given to the health training institutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Manu also explained that the move also forms part of Human Resource measures put in place by his outfit in consultation with stakeholders in the sector.<\/p>\n \u201cAs it is with all institutions, there comes a time that an HR plan is done to know the actual staff strength, the required staff mix and other considerations so that going forward there would not be any vacuum created…within the institution. That is to say, HR planning and analysis are norming practices the world over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a ministry we have over the years been taking these exercises though not in such a robust and scientifically based manner as it is done this year. It is in continuing with the same trend that the issue of the quota has been implemented and unfortunately seems to be new to many and raises some concerns among the populace. The Ministry of Health in coming out with the 2017 quota collaborated with the Nursing and Midwifery council including major stakeholders in arriving at the decision,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Joseph Ackon-Mensah \/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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