A group of unemployed nurses who completed their training in 2016 are challenging claims by President Akufo-Addo that the government has granted financial clearance and recruited more than 14,000 graduate nurses who completed their training in 2016 last year.
According to them, the president appears to have been misinformed as they are still at home waiting for the government’s intervention to employ them.
While delivering the 2019 State of the Nation Address on Thursday, President Akufo-Addo said it had recruited the over 14,000 graduate nurses who subsequently commenced work on 1st February 2019.
“Government granted financial clearance for the recruitment of eleven thousand, one hundred and eighteen (11,018) health personnel to increase existing clinical staff. To augment the efforts of clinical staff, in September, 2018, the Ministry of Health received further financial clearance to employ fourteen thousand, five hundred and twenty-four (14,254) Nurse Assistants (Clinical and Preventive). These nurse assistants belong to the tranche that passed their exams in 2016 from Government Health Training Institutions, and have commenced work by 1st February, 2019,” Akufo-Addo said.
But the group said the information is untrue.
The President of the Coalition of Allied Health Professionals, Bright Bell, in a Citi News interview reacting to the claim said nurses who graduated in 2016 have still not been posted.
He further expressed regret at President Akufo-Addo’s announcement that the government was working to grant financial clearance to 2017 and 2018 unemployed graduate nurses when 2016 graduates were yet to be recruited.
“We have completed in 2016 and 2017 and we are still at home. So if they talk about arrangements for our junior colleagues to be cleared, then we are at a lost because we are still waiting for our clearance. I think that facts must be laid bare so that we can all understand the situation,” Bright Bell said.
