A total of 145 students have enrolled at the Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery Training College (NMTC) and the ENT Nursing School in Kumasi to pursue post-basic specialised nursing with support from “Mahama Care”.
The programme is expected to introduce training in four new specialist nursing disciplines at the post-basic level, including Cardiology, Nephrology, Endocrinology, and Oncology.
The Minister of Health, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who disclosed this at the matriculation of 145 post-basic specialised nursing students in Kumasi on Monday said the Kumasi NMTC is training 99 students while the remaining 46 students will be trained at the Kumasi ENT Nursing School.
He announced that the Government would, in the coming months, sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) to officially deploy Ghanaian health professionals to work in those countries.
The Minister noted that the move builds upon an existing agreement with Jamaica, which was signed recently, adding that the government had already successfully deployed about four batches of nurses abroad under its facilitated programme.
According to the Minister, the structured migration of health professionals is intended to serve as a financial pillar for Ghana because when these professionals work abroad, they send back remittances that form the backbone of the national economy.
The Health Minister emphasised that even though the programme promotes external deployment, the government will strictly enforce measures to prevent a domestic brain drain of critical skills.
He said the state would bar highly specialised health professionals whose departure might create a deficit in specific medical areas from leaving the country.
The Minister said his ministry was aggressively expanding its domestic specialised training programmes to counter potential shortages and meet both urgent local needs and soaring global demands stressing that achieving a sustainable balance required massive investment in infrastructure, equipment, human resources, and system strengthening.
In line with this, he said the government had introduced a competency-based curriculum for nursing education and is actively upgrading several institutions this year to run post-basic specialised nursing programmes.
Mr. Akandoh said these comprehensive institutional upgrades are currently taking place at the Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery Training College (NMTC), Korle-Bu NMTC, the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) School in Kumasi, Tamale NMTC, and the Critical Care and Perioperative School at Korle-Bu.
He stated that the Ministry had enrolled 500 nurses into post-basic specialised training across various disciplines this year as a result of a successful pilot programme across centres in Korle-Bu, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and Tamale.
He added that the government’s target was to scale this number to enrol at least 1,000 nurses annually for the next three years.
To support this educational expansion, the Minister said the government had secured over 30 scholarships for health tutors to pursue PhDs, with commitments to sponsor more in the future.
Minister Akandoh explained that this aggressive training expansion was a deliberate policy to scale up specialised services to manage Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and other complex conditions.
He added that the ultimate expertise of these specialists will drastically improve patient outcomes, reduce medical complications, and drive Ghana closer to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
He emphasised that the matriculation of the first cohort was an investment in the very future of healthcare in Ghana rather than just in individuals, reiterating his vision that every citizen, regardless of location, must have access to quality healthcare delivered by highly competent professionals.
The Principal of Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Dr. David Benjamin Sampson, appealed to the Health Minister for infrastructure support to develop a new satellite campus on its 5.3 hectares of land at Nkoranza in the Atwima Kwanwoma District.
He also urged the Minister to complete infrastructure projects being undertaken by the Kumasi ENT Nursing Training School at its new site at Abuakwa and to equip them with ICT facilities.
The Principal appealed to the Health Minister to provide both schools with pick-up trucks and buses for academic and clinical training, as their current vehicles are outdated.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, urged health practitioners to “outsmart” AI, because machines lack ethics, empathy, and the human touch.
He noted that while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are advancing, they still cannot replicate the full scope of duties performed by trained healthcare professionals.
He stated that pursuing post-basic specialised care and continuous professional upgrading was a key avenue for nurses to maintain their competitive edge and remain indispensable in this technological era.
