The leadership of the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association has issued a strongly-worded statement expressing their disappointment in the Akufo Addo administration for reportedly deceiving them.
The statement said the group will like to “draw the attention of the general public and all our sympathizers to the persistent deceit we have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of the current government.”
“We can boldly say that after the 2017 group of Nurses and Midwives were denied, trainee allowance during their course of training, the then-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party and now President, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo won the 2016 elections on the back of the promise of immediate employment for the 2017 batch of Nurses and Midwives but has so far failed woefully on that promise.”
According to the frustrated nurses, the Ministry of Health has refused to help alleviate their plight and protests to drum home their predicament has been met with arrests.
“It may surprise you to know that till date, we are still sitting at home and our juniors who completed and passed their Licensure Examination in 2018 and beyond, have joined the queue in unemployment,” the statement read.
The group have given the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance a 14-day ultimatum to release their financial clearance as promised.
They also want the Ministry of health to employ them to help in the fight against the ravaging Covid-19 coronavirus.
“It is very obvious how important health professionals are to the country especially during the outbreak of COVID-19 and we as a group made up of thousands of unemployed Nurses and Midwives have been ever ready to serve our mother Ghana in these trying times and beyond,” the group noted, warning that they will “advise themselves” if their demands are not met.
The Akufo Addo administration made glowing campaign promises to nurses during the heated Presidential campaigns prior to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) finally winning the general elections in 2016.
The NPP had strongly criticised the then John Dramani Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration for neglecting training nurses by withholding their allowances and refusing to give them jobs after graduation.