'No slots' available: Min of Health recruitment portal tells most job applicants, but ministry says it was fairly recruiting 8000
The Ministry of Health (MoH) last week announced the opening of the recruitment portal, asking health professionals nationwide to apply for placement.
Given the backlog of more than 100,000 unemployed health professionals, the Ministry has indicated it acknowledges the anxiety and intense interest the exercise has generated.
However, the potential recruits trying to access the portal to apply for placement since it was opened last week [May 4] have been recounting how the system was automatically indicating to them that there were "no slots" available the moment they log on.
Aside from the challenges associated with the congestion to get into the portal, which has been going live at 10 am each day since it was opened on Monday, May 4, 2026, the applicants have been indicating how they are "surprisingly" told by the system that there are no regional slots available, even if they succeed in logging in a few minutes after 10 am.
Some of them have sat down with Graphic Online and gone through the process, ending up not being successful in proceeding to apply.
They claimed, and Graphic Online verified that some of them couldn't even access the site, [ https://mohrecruitment.com/login ] log in, or apply.
When it was tested, those who could log on after several attempts were able to see their details with their profile photo as they registered previously, but the system told them there were "no slots" at the regional level, thereby denying them the go-ahead to proceed and apply for placement in a region or a district across the 16 regions in the country.
According to some of them, they are wondering why the Ministry of Health was raising their hopes but was not hiring them, and that in the past, during recruitment, all qualified personnel were getting the opportunity without struggle.
The first two days the portal opened on May 4 and 5 was for applicants in the Upper East and Upper West regions to apply. Followed by Savannah and North East regions on May 6 and 7, Oti and Bono East for May 8 and 9, Western North and Ahafo for May 10 and 11, Volta and Northern for May 12, Central and Western for May 13, Bono and Ashanti for May 14 and lastly Greater Accra and Eastern for May 15,
Some of the applicants told Graphic Online that on a regional and daily basis for the two weeks, they anxiously tried at 10 am, struggled to sign in, and still met the "no slot" information at the regional level.
In a press release issued on Thursday, May 14, 2026, the Ministry of Health said the last batches of recruitment across various professional categories occurred as far back as 2020 for nurses, 2019 for pharmacists, 2019 for allied health professionals, and 2018 for physician assistants. The figures underline the prolonged freeze that has left tens of thousands of trained health workers waiting years for employment.
The Ministry noted that the government was unable to recruit all professionals at once, but said the current financial clearance for health professionals and support staff covers the recruitment of about 8,000 staff across all categories.
"The Ministry remains committed to creating recruitment opportunities for all categories of health professionals, as demonstrated in the current process. Quality healthcare delivery depends on effective teamwork across all professional cadres," the statement read.
It said the recruitment exercise was heavily guided by the objectives of the Free Primary Healthcare Policy, with emphasis on strengthening preventive, community-based, and primary healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved areas.
It said areas considered most critical were prioritised as follows: Nurses and Midwives received the largest allocation of 6,500 positions, with greater priority given to Nurse Assistant Preventive, Community Health Nurses, and Public Health Nurses to support home visits and community-based healthcare delivery.
Allied Health Professionals received 900 positions, with greater priority given to Laboratory Technicians and Health Information Officers to strengthen service delivery from the Community-based Health Planning and Services level to the polyclinic level. Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technicians received 250 positions, with emphasis placed on technicians to strengthen pharmaceutical service delivery.
Physician Assistants received 300 positions, with those recruited in 2024 but awaiting mechanisation onto the payroll prioritised.
Regional allocations
In the interest of transparency, it said regional allocations were based on staffing norms and annual human resource requirements submitted by the Ghana Health Service, CHAG, Ahmadiyya Health Services, and the Mental Health Authority.
It said the Ministry engaged key stakeholders through a Recruitment Committee made up of Human Resource Directors from the relevant agencies and that the allocations were determined based on staffing needs and gap analyses, with regions facing greater staffing gaps and healthcare needs receiving higher allocations.
New recruitment portal
It said to further enhance transparency and support direct district-level recruitment, the Ministry introduced a new recruitment portal and that the feedback on the system has been taken in good faith to improve user experience.
Looking ahead
The Ministry acknowledged that more health professionals are needed to expand access to quality healthcare delivery across the country and pledged to continue engaging the Ministry of Finance to secure additional financial clearance for further recruitment, and stated that the recruitment portal will be reopened whenever additional financial clearance is granted.
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