|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Ministry of Health has successfully recruited 6,245 nurses and midwives out of 6,500 available positions in a nationwide exercise aimed at strengthening primary healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved communities across Ghana. The announcement was made in Accra by Frederick Mensah-Acheampong, Director of Human Resources at the Ministry, who described the recruitment as highly competitive due to the large pool of qualified applicants.
This initiative forms part of the government’s broader free primary healthcare program, designed to deploy trained professionals to areas facing critical staffing shortages and improve access to essential health services at the community level. Mr. Mensah-Acheampong noted that the exercise aligns with the government’s Primary Healthcare policy, which emphasizes preventive care, community-based services, and strengthening primary healthcare, especially in underserved regions.
In addition to nurses and midwives, the recruitment exercise also onboarded 771 allied health professionals out of 900, 235 pharmacy professionals out of 250, and 300 physician assistants, reflecting a wide-ranging effort to fill staffing gaps across multiple healthcare disciplines.
The Ministry of Health received financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance to recruit approximately 8,000 health professionals, acknowledging the high interest and anxiety surrounding these exercises, particularly among the 105,000 unemployed health professionals, some of whom have been awaiting recruitment since 2018 and 2019.
Although about 87 nursing positions remain unfilled in the Northern districts, a mop-up exercise will be conducted in the coming weeks to absorb eligible applicants who were unable to complete the recruitment process.
Story by Efua Nessa
Source: Loco tv