Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, has confirmed that International Moneraty Fund conditionalities will not impact the employment of nurses, doctors, and midwives.
According to him, although the backlog is huge, the Ministry of Health is working to get financial clearance for them to be recruited.
Some unemployed graduates from the various nursing and midwifery schools who graduated since 2000 have been picketing in Accra for their immediate employment.
Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye has been responding to their concerns on the sidelines of the First Senior Managers Meeting in Kumasi.
He said efforts were underway to address the concerns raised.
“Despite the conditionalities of the IMF, we recruit doctors and nurses every year, and so I will appeal to them to exercise patience. The number is huge, and we cannot recruit all of them at once. The Ministry of Health, which is the mother ministry, is working to ensure that we recruit more of them. We will only appeal to them to exercise patience.”
Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye also touched on measures that have been adopted to address the shortage of health workers in the midst of the brain drain that has hit the health sector in recent times.
The financial aspect is a significant factor influencing some health workers to seek greener opportunities abroad, he said.
The health service is unable to match the high incentives provided by the opportunities they get abroad.
However, it will continue to invest in our health sector to give professionals better opportunities.
He pledged to implement measures to enhance the capacity of health workers and encourage the government to improve their working conditions, enabling them to remain home and serve the nation.
“As a service, we have realised that to retain the health workers, we have to give them, especially those in rural areas, early study leaves and fast-track their promotions so their conditions will improve. But most importantly, this is a collective problem we have to help address as a country.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
