FLASHBACK: The nurses demonstrating at the premises of the Ministry of Health
The coalition of registered unemployed private nurses from different government accredited private nursing training colleges in the country on Wednesday evening ended their three-day picketing at the Ministry of Health (MoH).
The group since Monday morning pitched camp at the ministry, where they passed three nights demanding their immediate postings to the various health facilities across the country.
The group, with a population of over 5,000 nurses, claims government has refused to engage them since they completed their training within the last four years.
The nurses, with qualifications such as health assistant clinical and diploma in nursing, opined they have been handed a raw deal by the ministry of health.
“They assured us that when we finish we will be employed by government like the public nurses. We write the same exams and have the same pin as the public nurses but they are being employed and we have been left out,” they revealed.
However, the leadership of the group decided to call a truce after officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) visited them to exercise restraint as stakeholders address their issue.
Rexford Ofori from the School of Nursing at Adenta and an executive member of the group mentioned that they decided to call off the picketing after the National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Sammy Awuku, and the Minister of Communications, Mustapha Hamid, addressed them Wednesday evening.
“They apologised for the unfortunate situation and assured us that the ministry was working on our issue. They said we should give them some few weeks to settle the issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Robert Cudjoe, Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Health, explained that the leadership had been engaged by the ministry on countless occasions to exercise patience for the process to go through.
“We have been having this discussion with them, when the government came to power there was a process that had already started and there were some clearance that was pending. We have spoken with them and given them all the assurances that we have to give them. We have gone a step further by requesting finance to give us the go-ahead to employ them. The minister has met them, the deputy minister has also met them we have assured them on daily basis,” he stated.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri