CHHTI reacts to Prof. Akosa's statement

Accra, April 23, GNA - The Office of the Interim Chairman of Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (CHHTI) on Sunday reacted to a statement attributed to Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director General (DG) of the Ghana Health (GHS) concerning his unhappiness of admissions into nursing training institutions by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

A statement issued and signed by Mr. James Yambor, Interim Chairman of the CHHTI said Nursing and Midwifery training in Ghana is backed by law (N.RC.D.117 and L.I.683) and that the Director General unhappiness and strong reservations and the alleged anomaly have no legal basis and unwarranted.

It said the final determination of admissions into nursing training was done by the Heads of the nursing training institutions as required by law (N.R.C.D. 117 section 34 (2e), adding that MOH in Accra only co-ordinates and facilitates the process.

The statement said students in the past were selected for admission by the Human Resource Directorate of the GHS in Accra and the list posted to the heads of the training institutions, which contravened the law.

"Therefore, in this era of the law of the rule of law, all that the MOH does is to coordinate, facilitate and monitor the process to ensure transparency' It said.

It said the process has ensured that malpractice in relation to admission of students have reduced to the barest minimum. The statement further said the DG's proposed Regional Selection Committee to draw up criteria for selecting students into the training institutions and also select qualified candidates has no legal basis and therefore unacceptable.

It also said the proposal casts a slur on the integrity of the heads of the training institutions who have been accredited by the National Accreditation Board and the Nurses and Midwife Council as required by law and approved by the MOH.

The MOH has facilitated the heads of the institutions to define the entry requirement for the various programmes and develop computerized selection criteria for the selection of candidates for the interviews at the institutional level, adding that a standard interview panel is agreed upon by the heads as well as score sheets developed for use by all the institutions.

The statement also noted that the MOH had increased the intake into health training institutions to address the problem of shortage of nurses at the district and community levels as well as requested Municipal and District assemblies to sponsor students in health training institutions so that upon successful completion they could be employed to serve the community. 23 April 2006