Government has yet to employ trainee nurses who completed school since 2021, president of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association has revealed.
“As we speak now, we have our 2021 and 2022 batches that are waiting to be employed and we are talking about thousands of nurses and midwives both auxiliary and diploma and degree holders,” she stated on JoyNews.
According to Perpetual Ofori Ampofo, the Akufo-Addo government, after assuming power in 2017, was swift in clearing a backlog of unemployed trained nurses it inherited from the previous administration.
She said the association had therefore hoped that the government would continue on that tangent so that , in the near future, trainees, who complete their course of study, would be absorbed into the system almost immediately.
However, since 2020, government has not been able to able to follow through with its regular employment of nurses, resulting in a backlog, she indicated.
“The truth of the matter is that at the latter part of the NDC regime, we had a huge backlog of our nurses and midwives. When the NPP came into power, they actually did their to clear this backlog. We were very happy and we coordinated it through the officer of the Director HR at the Ministry of Health.
And we also worked hand in hand with Ministry of Finance and we were hoping to get to the level where as soon as you complete training, you can be absorbed into the system. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen because of the fiscal challenges and we are beginning to see this huge backlog again”.
Ms. Perpetual Ampofo said this while speaking on the mass exodus of health workers from the country.
She attributed the situation to poor conditions of service, unconducive work environment and the lack of opportunities for professional development.
The GRNMA president stated that most healthcare providers in the country work under deplorable conditions and are not well motivated.
This, she indicated, is pushing many to desert the country’s health facilities for greener pastures abroad
She noted that the attrition of nurses and medical practitioners could spell doom for the country’s health system if it is not urgently addressed.
