Issue financial clearance to nurses and midwives – GRNMA to government
The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives’ Association has called on the government to urgently issue financial clearance for the permanent employment of nurses and midwives in the country.
The Association is also calling on the government to pay all outstanding allowances of trainees and rotation nurses and midwives.
Mrs Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, the President of the Association, made the call on Wednesday at a press briefing in Accra on issues affecting Nurses and Midwives trainees, interns and unemployed personnel.
The issues include delay in the payment of trainee allowances of up to 11 months, delay in the posting of 10,727 Nurse Assistant Clinical (NAC) and Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP) belonging to the 2019 batch who have been registered on the Ministry of Health’s recruitment portal.
Others are, delay in the issuance of financial clearance for permanent recruitment of the 2019 Diploma and Degree referred group who completed their rotation or national service in September 2021 and delay in financial clearance for the permanent recruitment of the 2020 NAC and NAP.
Mrs Ofori-Ampofo called on the Ministry of Health to investigate all allegations of corrupt practices in the posting of Nurses and Midwives and also refrain from arresting them when they come to the Ministry to demand for their posting.
The Association urged all Nurses and Midwives awaiting employment by the Government to have confidence in their group leaders and accept the periodic updates from them from the engagements with the Ministries of Health and Finance.
“We call on all trainees, rotation Nurses and Midwives and all categories of unemployed personnel to remain calm as the leadership of the Association work with their group leaders and the government to find lasting solutions to their issues,” she said.
Mrs Ofori-Ampofo called on the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana to take disciplinary actions against individuals who resort to social media to dent the image of the profession.
She called on the government to immediately resolved the Ministry issues raised before September 2022 to ensure industrial harmony devoid of any labour unrest.
The President said even though the Association recognised the effort of the Government in employing the backlog of unemployed Nurses and Midwives in the past, the authorities had not been able to prevent the creation of new backlogs in the system.
Ms Georgina Kwakye, the Public Relations Officer, 2019 Second Batch of Nurses and Midwives, said they had become a liability to society, adding, ” we are home since November 2021 doing nothing.”
“I am currently at home selling pure water, some of my colleagues have to borrow before they eat, we are depressed, others are working in a private hospitals with meagre salaries while others engage in social vices,” she said.
She said, “Nursing is a practical work but we are home doing nothing, if we do not practice our profession, we will forget our lessons which will be detrimental to the health sector.”
Source: GNA