While the Graduate Nurses and Midwives Association has welcomed the government’s announcement regarding the recruitment of professional health workers, the organisation maintains significant concerns regarding the execution of the exercise.
Sandra Frimpong, President of the Association, revealed that there are currently 70,000 unemployed graduate nurses and midwives across the country.
She noted that while the Association acknowledges the government’s efforts following consistent engagement over their plight, they are calling for a recruitment structure that strictly prioritises graduation batches.
The Ministry of Health has officially scheduled a massive nationwide recruitment exercise to begin on 16 April 2026.
This initiative follows the successful acquisition of financial clearance, which authorises the employment of qualified medical personnel across various cadres and graduation years.
In a strategic shift toward local empowerment, the Ministry confirmed that this year’s hiring process will be fully decentralised, moving the core of recruitment activities directly to the district level.
However, the official statement did not disclose the specific number of nurses and midwives to be recruited.
Ms Frimpong argued that the most equitable approach would be a chronological recruitment process.
She pointed out that referral batches from 2020, 2021, and 2022, along with more recent graduates, remain unemployed.
During an interview on Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, she expressed the frustration of her members and highlighted the uncertainty surrounding the selection criteria.
“We had engaged with the government over our issues. They are aware of our situation. The previous government made attempts to employ some of our members but we still have a backlog. We have over 70,000 graduates at home who are unemployed. We have from 2020, 2021, 2022 and more at home. So the question is how are they going to recruit us? The approach should be based on seniority and batches. You cannot use ‘fastest finger’ in employing us. This is not fair. All we are appealing for is for them to recruit us systematically. Once again, we appreciate the efforts but the process must be based on batches and it must favour the seniors before the juniors are also considered.”
She further explained that the number of graduates from the 2020 batch is relatively small, suggesting they should be processed first. This would be followed by the 2021 batch, which consists of approximately 21,000 graduates, continuing in this sequential manner until all batches are successfully recruited.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
