Complete abandoned health facility projects to reduce unemployment – Minority

The minority in parliament has called on government to expedite action on the uncompleted and abandoned health facilities across the country.

According to the Minority, the completion of these facilities will go a long way in providing jobs for unemployed nurses in the country.

At a press conference the ranking member of the select committee on health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said that government must employ more nurses and midwives to be able to provide better health care and this can only be achieved if government completes and expands health infrastructure in the country.

“The health minister is a very sensitive one and so policies and programs in the sector should be a holistic one. To be able to employ more nurses and midwives and to provide better health care deliver means expanding the infrastructure in the health sector, hence the investment of over I billion USD in the health sector by the previous Mahama administration.

We will therefore at this point call on the president to expedite action on the uncompleted and abandoned health facilities littered across the country and also make the already completed ones fully operational. This will result in the creation of more vacancies to be able to absorb the unemployed nurses.”

The minority in parliament held a joint press conference with Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association (GUNMA) over harassment by police during their picketing at the Ministry of health.

Six persons were arrested on Monday for picketing the Ministry of Health.

The suspects are members of the Coalition of Unemployed Nurses who joined hundreds of their colleagues to demand employment from the ministry.

According to the National President of the Association, Sugri Abdul-Rafiq, they were attacked by the police in their quest to seek feedback on when they would be given clearance after the ministry failed to respond to an earlier letter.

“On 20th August 2019, a press conference was organized in Accra and a 21 working day ultimatum given to government to respond to our concerns raised. Failure on the part of government to respond to our issues made leadership to write a letter to the Ministry of Health and called for a meeting on 27th September 2019,” he said.

“Prior to our picketing a letter was submitted to the regional police commander on the 4th October 2019. And to the ministry to notify them of our intention to picket on the said date indicated in our letter.” He added.

“It is sad and shocking as members and leadership of graduate unemployed nurses and midwives were harassed and some arrested by the Ghana police service as we picketed at the Ministry of health premises.”

The group is therefore calling on government to address their concerns, as attempts to meet the health minister has proven futile.