FILE PHOTO: Graduate nurses
Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has announced that about 53,000 more nurses are expected to be employed by the end of 2019.
He said the nurses who completed their training in 2017 and 2018 academic years would be employed once the Ministry of Finance (MoF) gives the necessary financial clearance to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
“We are in talks with the Finance Ministry to give us further clearance to employ the 2017 and 2018 batches. We are hoping that by the end of this year, we will employ up to 53,000 nurses nationwide,” he explained.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu further indicated that some of the nurses to be recruited would be posted to other countries to offer their services.
“We are in talks with Germany and other countries to export nurses and other health personnel to those countries,” the sector minister said when he addressed residents of Issa, the capital of the Daffiama-Bisie-Issa District of the Upper West Region, during President Akufo-Addo’s visit to the area.
He said Jamaica had already expressed interest in importing the services of nurses from Ghana, adding that the MoH was also working to secure visas for some nurses to work in countries like Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“We are aware of the current unemployment situation the previous government created. That is why the president upon assuming office started a process to get our nurses employed.”
He further assured that government would pay all arrears owed health service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the country by the middle of September this year.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu called on Ghanaians to rally behind the government to bring the needed development to the country.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri