The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has given a vivid update to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suaman Dadieso Constituency, Frederick Addy, about the steps being put in place to post trained but unemployed health professionals in his constituency.

During a Parliamentary session on Friday, July 11, 2025, the minister addressed the pressing issue raised by the MP about the measures being implemented to tackle the challenges faced by 30,000 trained health workers who have remained unemployed despite the critical staff shortage in health facilities nationwide.

Akandoh explained that there are health professionals who meet the employment criteria but are still awaiting recruitment.

“Currently, the number of health workers demanding employment is substantial and far above the 30,000 as quoted; please permit me provide some details of health professionals currently eligible for employment but yet to be recruited.

“We have the 2021 batch with the total of 15,947, the 2022 batch with the total of 17,176 and the 2023 batch with the total of 15,755; this gives us the total of 48,878 unemployed nurses,” he asserted.

According to him, approximately 15,000 nurses were given financial clearance and employed in December 2024 and their payroll process is ongoing.

However, approximately 8,000 of them have been placed on payroll while others are yet to have a hologram and some yet to have their clearance renewed because some of them expired.

He highlighted that a category of 21,570 health professionals, specifically allied health professionals have not had financial clearance for several years, dating back to 2019.

He noted that, a total of 1,621 unemployed pharmacists has also not received any financial clearance since 2019.

Akandoh also mentioned that efforts are currently underway to begin the recruitment process of over 900 medical doctors who are presently not working.

The minister guaranteed that collaboration between the Finance and Health Ministries would facilitate the swift recruitment of health professionals, effectively doubling numbers in the health institutions.

“The problem is therefore enormous, but we’re committed to finding solutions to it; the Ministry is actively engaging the relevant stakeholders including the Ministry of Finance to ensure that the recruitment of professionals is done as soon as possible to beef up the numbers at various health institutions to promote quality of care for all people living in Ghana,” he assured.

AM/KA

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