The Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced the release of official clearance for 440 medical officers who completed their house training at the various hospitals in 2015 and 2016.
According to a release signed by the Head of the Public Relations Unit of MoH, Tony Goodman, the financial clearance received from the Auditors General’s Department implies that the permanently registered medical officers of the Medical and Dental Council will have to obtain a recruitment form from the appointing agencies across the country.
He said the 2016 medical officers’ recruitment quota for the various agencies include Ghana Health Service -238, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital -38, Christian Health Association of Ghana -86, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital – 20 and Tamale Teaching Hospital -29.
Other hospitals are Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital – 20, Police Hospital -3, Mental Health Authority -2, Centre for Clinical Genetics-1, Centre Scientific Research Into Plant Medicine -1, and University of Cape Coast Hospital-2.
“Copies of the approved financial clearance are available at the Agencies,” he said.
The release of the timely financial clearance by the Ministry of Finance and the Auditor General’s Department for the medical officers brings to four, the number of measures taken by government to settle agitations on the country’s labour front.
Recently, government has taken a u-turn in the labour front, raising embargos it placed on various employments in the public service of the country.
In what seem to be a deliberate move by the Mahama-led government to settle labour issues by responding to the demands in the health sector which has experienced serious labour agitation in the past, the MoH has agreed to a recommendation by the technical review committee to restore the monthly allowance of trainee nurses to serve as a bridging mechanism pending the amendment of the Students Loan Trust Act.
The reinstatement of trainee nurses allowance of GH¢150 to about 34,500 students who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country would serve as a bridging mechanism pending the amendment of the Students Loan Trust Act.
Also, government a few weeks ago released the research allowance of lecturers in the various tertiary institutions and has approved the recruitment of 1,018 lecturers in the various tertiary institutions.
However, it is yet to restore the teacher trainee allowance and salary arrears of teachers.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri