The unemployed nurses during the march
A GROUP of young nurses yesterday took to the streets of Kumasi to express their frustration over the delay of government in employing and posting them to the various health institutions across the country after finishing school in 2016 and completing the mandatory rotation (service).
It was the first regional protest in the Ashanti regional capital after a wave of unrest over financial clearance last year.
According to the protesters, the Ministry of Health has shown little interest in securing clearance that would enable them to be posted to start their permanent job placement despite the fact that their services are badly needed by the nation.
The unemployed nurses, who were dressed in their uniforms and wore red armed bands, marched through the principal streets of Kumasi with chants and placards demanding to be cleared financially by the Finance Ministry.
This, they claimed, would enable the Ministry of Health to offer them permanent employment in the various public health facilities across the country.
Recently, the Health Ministry announced it had received financial clearance from the Finance Ministry for over 8,000 unemployed nurses.
But the nurses that graduated in 2016 said no member of their batch had been given clearance except the one that was to allow their allowance to be paid as they were going to do a one-year mandatory service.
“It wasn’t a financial clearance to permanently engage us,” one of the protesters told DAILY GUIDE in an answer to a question.
The march was an attempt to put issues of nursing trainees back on to the political agenda, raising concerns over the impact of joblessness after completion of school.
The protesters also highlighted concerns about how the unemployed nurses throughout the country feel betrayed by the inability of the government to clear them to start permanent jobs.
Recently, an army of bonded unemployed nurses and midwives besieged the premises of the Ministry of Health to demand postings, arguing that they had been idling at home for the past two years after successfully leaving school and completing their mandatory national service.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi