The government is working hard to improve upon the conditions of health professionals, particularly nurses and midwives. The move is a national effort to address the migration of health professionals from the country.
Alhaji Hafiz Adam, a Chief Director of the Ministry of Health (MOH) gave this hint while addressing the third graduation ceremony of the Dunkwa Nursing and Midwifery Training College last week.
According to him, migration of the health professionals is a major concern for which the government was engaging with agencies and relevant stakeholders to ensure that staff who accepted postings to deprived areas got incentives for their services.
Alhaji Adam assured that the government was committed to enhancing the working environment.
The MOH Chief Director reminded the nurses on the need to balance the benefits of migration against its potential negative impact on the healthcare system.
Director Adam noted that even though migration offers potential for professional development and remittances, it weakens health systems.
He emphasised that Ghana needed nurses and midwives to work hard to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and cautioned them that in taking the decision to migrate, health professionals must not lose sight of the fact that they were trained with the taxpayers’ money and that they should consider migrating after they had had some experiences.
Mr. Adam also announced a strong MOH and University of Cape Coast collaboration to train about 700 tutors to acquire teaching skills towards improving teaching in higher education including Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges.
Meanwhile, the Dunkwa Nursing and Midwifery Training College has churned out 1942 graduates, including 581 Registered Midwifery, 668 Registered General Nursing, 528 Registered Nurse Assistant Clinical and 165 Post NAP and NAC Midwifery.
The Principal of the College, Dr. David Ben Sampson advised the graduates to stay in Ghana and help build our motherland.
He announced that the advisory Board and management in consultation with the MOH and the Nursing and Midwifery Council have initiated processes for the running of the Bachelor of Science Degree programme in Nursing and Midwifery at the college.
