Govt Okays Nurses Employment

Nurses whose recruitment process was halted last year due to a change in government have been given the green light to continue their employment procedure with the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

A memo from the Ministry of Health (MoH) dated March 20, 2017 referring to a letter dated February 16, 2017, on the suspension of recruitment of health professionals, stated the reversal of the suspension placed on recruitment of nurses by Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu.

The memo, titled ‘Resumption of recruitment process for health professionals granted financial clearance in December 2016’ and addressed to all regional directors of health service, stated, “The honourable Minister of Health has now granted approval for the recruitment of trainees and other health professionals who were granted financial clearance in December 2016 in line with the respective regional ceilings.”

“In view of the above, I have been directed to request you to resume the process which was stalled following the earlier directive,” the memo, signed by Peter Obiri-Yeboah, Deputy Director, Human Resources Management, added.

The earlier suspension affected 8,634 professionals. The Minority in Parliament also condemned the government for halting a recruitment process aimed at employing 20,000 nurses.

The memo, however, explained that the earlier “suspension is not a cancellation of their employment process but to allow the Ministry of Health to finalize all issues related to financial clearance.”