Over 5000 nurses cleared for posting – Goodman

The Ministry of Health says the Finance Ministry has cleared 5,750 qualified health nurses for postings before the end of the year.

Head of public relations of the Health Ministry, Tony Goodman announced on Monday after a petition was presented to his outfit by the Coalition of Non-posted Nurses (CNN).

According to the non-posted nurses, government has failed to assign them to any health facility, months after leaving school.

For hours, the petitioners were at the Health Ministry without any official from the ministry to receive them.

Freeman Addy, one of the leaders of CNN indicated that they were not bothered by the delay as they remained resolute to present their petition, which would determine the way forward for them.

Public relations officers at the ministry, Tony Goodman later emerged and ushered the nurses in.

Just when they entered, some nurses from the Holy Family Nursing Training School at Nkawkaw also arrived with the same agenda.

Miriam Ofeibea who was representing the 2014 batch of the school said they were denied posting due to an error by the midwifery council told 3FM:.

‘‘Our school was left out and we have been coming here for the past seven weeks and they keep saying they are working on our documents. So we just came to do a follow up.”

After the closed door meeting, one of the leaders of CNN, Felix Adom told the media the meeting was successful.

‘‘They’ve listened to our plight and they have showed us certain things that are in the process so we are happy. At first we were hearing a whole lot of information about our postings but as we got here, we have been given clarification.’’

On his part, Tony Goodman stated: “We are currently posting about 5750 nurses who have been cleared by the Ministry of Finance so until they are absorbed, we can’t send their documents. It’s not as if we don’t want to post them, in fact we need them but when you are dealing with two or three institutions, you can’t give a timeline’’.

For the Holy Family Nursing Training School, he said the nurses cannot blame the ministry for an omission committed by their regulator, the Nurses and Midwifery Council.

Early on, whilst the meeting was ongoing, officers from the Ministries Police Station led by the district commander, DSP Florence Owusu joined the meeting.

Later, DSP Florence Owusu told the media she was disappointed at the nurses for not informing the police of their intention. She gave them a stern warning and asked for a formal apology letter from the group.