Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), has expressed disappointment over the lackadaisical manner in which the Mahama administration is handling issues concerning nurses in the country.
He said it is “unfortunate and irresponsible” on the part of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for trained nurses to be jobless.
In the view of Ivor, the government had failed Ghanaians by refusing to create a conducive health environment for the citizenry.
The government, in what has largely been described a knee-jerk reaction for votes in the December 2016 elections, last week restored the allowances of nurse trainees it had earlier scrapped.
Government earlier decided to scrap the allowance for both teacher and nursing training students, arguing that the withdrawal of the allowances was intended to increase the number of students admitted to these institutions.
U-Turn
President Mahama, in an interview in Tamale, reportedly said that a technical committee formed to review the concerns of the trainee nurses had recommended that 34,500 nursing students, who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country, should be paid “about GH¢150 a month.”
Speaking at Manso Nkwanta in the Amansie West Constituency as part of his seven-day Ashanti Regional ‘Apam Foforo’ tour, Ivor was emphatic that nurses were dear to his heart.
He explained that nurses saved his life in a road accident that made him incapacitated, adding that he spent one year in hospital and grew to love and respect nurses for their dedicated service, hard work and commitment.
He argued that the NDC had disappointed Ghanaians regarding its ‘Better Ghana’ agenda in the area of health and that the best example of the neglect of the sector by the government is the Goroyesum Hospital, the only hospital in the district built by the Catholic Church.
Paradigm Shift
For this reason, the CPP flagbearer stated that if voted into office, the CPP government would adopt the best strategies to equip all health facilities in the country and staff them with the required number of health personnel, especially doctors and nurses.
Mr. Ivor Greenstreet noted that the party, when voted into power, would absorb nurses from both public and private training institutions which fit into the CPP’s policy to revamp the health sector to end the idleness of trained nurses at home.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com