Unemployed nurses threaten march to Presidency

Some nurses who have constituted themselves into a pressure group called the Coalition of Unemployed Bonded Diploma Nurses in Ghana have threatened to march to the seat of government in the coming days if the Health and Finance ministries fail to give them financial clearance to be posted to the various health institutions.

The nurses, numbering more than 100, last Monday night picketed at the Ministry of Health to press home their demand for job placements.

According to them, they had not received any postings after completing their national service a year ago.

Made up of psychiatric nurses, general registered nurses and midwives, members of the group slept at the ministry until yesterday, but have vowed not to leave the premises until their demands were addressed.

Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr George Oduro, brought food to the irate nurses yesterday morning.

Chanting songs

The aggrieved nurses were dressed in their uniforms with red arm bands and headgears to protest what they described as unfair treatment on the part of the government.

They intermittently chanted songs to express their frustrations at government officials for allowing them to go through a lot of stress.

“We are not going to leave here until we hear and see concrete evidence which is documented to prove that our concerns have been addressed before we leave here,” the Public Relations Officer of the group, Mr Abubakari Shamsudeen, told the Daily Graphic.

He said other members of the group had been called from the various regions to come and join in the demonstration.

Follow-ups

Explaining their concerns to the Daily Graphic, Mr Shamsudeen said the leadership of the group had met officials of the Ministry of Health many times but nothing fruitful had come out of the deliberations.

He said they were promised that their concerns would be addressed in the 2017 budgetary, only to hear that clearance had been given to some group of nurses a month ago, leaving them out.

Mr Shamsudeen indicated that after the budget, the executive of the group approached the Ministry of Health but it did not yield any fruitful outcome.

“As bonded nurses and health professionals, we cannot work in the private sector after our service until we finish our five-year agreement. But here is the case those concerned are refusing to post us to the appropriate facilities to render our services to the nation,” he said.

At the time of going to press, no concrete decision had been arrived at between the leadership of the group and officials of the Ministry of Health. 

Bonded policy

In an interview, a Deputy Minister of Health, Ms Tina Gifty Naa-Ayeley Mensah, pleaded with the nurses to go home, since their concerns would be addressed.

She said the ministry would continue to jaw-jaw with the leadership of the group and find a lasting solution to their concerns. 

Ms Mensah added that the bonded policy where nurses had to work for five years for the government due to a bond signed before completing their courses would possibly be looked at again, and if possible, review it.