Private health facilities to absorb 68,000 nurses at home

There are now 68,000 jobless nurses in the country who are making desperate efforts to travel abroad to find jobs.

Some of them have been at home for the past four years. At least 400 mental health nurses left the country last year to seek employment elsewhere. 

The Vice-President of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana (PHFAOG), Boakye Donkor, made this known at the third Volta/Oti regional conference of the association in Ho. 

The conference coincided with the launch of the fifth annual general conference of PHFAOG, slated for October 14-18, 2025 in Ho to be held on the theme: “Unlocking opportunities – Leveraging government private sector development policy to boost Ghana’s private health sector”.

The conference’s objective was to discuss the short and medium  - term goals of the association.

Mr Donkor described the situation as dicey and highly inimical to the national interest.

To curb the trend, he said PHFAOG had taken a bold decision to absorb the nurses.

He said there were 1,310 private health facilities in the country, contributing 42 per cent to the national healthcare service.

For now, the private facilities would come together and work out a payment structure for the nurses before seeking help from the government in respect of their other service conditions,  the national vice - president of PHFAOG said.

Earlier, the Volta/Oti Regional chairman of PHFAOG, Agnes Mawusi Nkansah, said Ghana had reached a defining moment in the journey of private health facilities as the association had taken a strategic alignment with national development goals.

“Team work between the government and the private sector can build more inclusive, resilient and efficient health system for all Ghanaians,” she added.

Mrs Nkansah said the association now had a stronger platform to engage policy makers, improve service standards and attract investment and innovation into the sector.

“We are ready to collaborate, share knowledge and take bold steps in transforming healthcare access and quality in our communities.

“We are committed to the principles of professionalism, accountability and service, and we look forward to bringing key players in shaping the future of health in Ghana,” Mr Nkansah affirmed.

The General Secretary of PHFAOG, Richard Frank Torblu, appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority to desist from going public with payments to private health facilities even though the payments never materialised.

“This is creating conflict situations between the private health facilities and  suppliers of medical items,” he explained.

Mr Torblu called on all private health facilities to register properly and comply with the regulations of private practice.

He cautioned that the associations would soon embark on an exercise to shut down private facilities which were not operating according to the laid down regulations of the association.