The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association will later today [Monday] picket at the Health and Finance Ministries.
The decision to picket follows inconclusive meetings with the Vice President over their demands for financial clearance.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LXj1T1O4Pc2sqau0eTFpCvKOhdgll6bz”]The aggrieved health professionals want to be posted to serve as professionals at public hospitals in the country instead of being enlisted on the Heal Ghana module of the Nation Builders Corps.
The Association has embarked on a series of protests to drive home its objection to the enrolment of nurses onto the Nation Builders Corps program.
Speaking to Citi News, the President of the Association, Batiah Semi Ulah Santi said the group would resist the government’s attempt to access cheap labour from nurses.
“Once the government cannot tell us when our financial clearance will be made available then they have no other plan for us aside employing us under the Heal Ghana module which reads like a calculated attempt to score political points and to access cheap labour from the nursing fraternity.”
The health professionals are being encouraged to enrol in the government’s Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCO) which is for a maximum period of three years for GHc 700 a month.
But the nurses say enrolling in NABCO may mean that clearance for permanent employment will not be granted.
The National Health Students Association has also complained that thought the government’s decision to introduce the program is to address graduate unemployment, they believe that the remuneration falls far below their skills and training.
It also said the government’s decision to enrol them in the program was a subtle way of shirking its responsibility towards them.
Despite their complaints, the government has explained that unemployed nurses who sign unto the corps will still be posted when they eventually receive financial clearance from the Finance Ministry.
The Coordinator of the Nation Builders Corps, Dr Ibrahim Anyass, has stated that although there are openings for graduate nurses to be employed under the scheme, application for the jobs is not compulsory.
According to him, the project had been initiated by the government as a stopgap measure to allow graduates from tertiary institutions who had completed their mandatory year of National Service gain vital work experience, while ensuring that they continue to practice the skills they have learnt.
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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/citinewsroom.com/Ghana