The Ministry of Health has appealed to members of the Coalition of Unemployed Bonded Diploma Nurses to exercise restraint as it resolves matters relating to their postings.
According to the Public Relations Officer, Robert Cudjoe, there is a backlog of unemployed nurses, a situation the government was dealing with, hence the nurses will soon receive their postings.
The nurses have hinted at picketing the Flagstaff House if their demands are not met by the Ministry of Health. On Monday, 24 April, they defied calls from the police and the Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, to go home, choosing to spend the night at the Ministry to press home their demands.
The group, which comprises psychiatric nurses, general nurses, and midwives, is angry over government’s failure to effect clearance for its members’ postings after the completion of their national service in August 2016.
They have accused the Minister of Health, Kweku Agyeman-Manu, of acting in bad faith as his promise to get them cleared and posted has yielded no results.
Some of the nurses who spoke in an interview with Accra News’ Nana Amoako Gymapah on Tuesday April 25 said we know the president is a listening president and a father for all and so we are appealing to him to intervene.
“He has appointed some people to work on his behalf but it appears those people he has appointed are embarrassing him. If our needs are not met today we will picket the Flagstaff House to make our issues known to him,” one of them said.
Another nurse added: “We are disappointed at the way and manner the Ministry is handling this matter. We have duly completed school and served the nation by doing our national service and so we don’t know why the Ministry is not posting us.”
But speaking in an interview with Chef Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yenosm. There is the need to look at this situation dispassionately.
“There was a huge backlog of unemployed nurses starting from 2013 that the government has been dealing with and so we are only appealing to these nurses to exercise patience as the ministry deals with the backlog.
“It will certainly get to their turn for them to be posted.”
He added: “I am appealing to the nurses who have gathered at the Ministry of Health to go home with the assurance that their concerns will be addressed.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
