Health Ministry Rejects Claims That It Owes Nursing Trainees 8 Month Allowance

The Ministry of Health has rejected claims by the Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Trainees’ Association (GNMTA) that government owes its members eight months allowance.

In a reply to an earlier statement by GNMTA in which the allegation had been made along with claims that the government has also stopped paying trainee allowances totally, the Ministry said neither allegations are true.

“The Ministry of Health wishes to assure the public that it does not owe any student to the tune of eight months as stated in the press release from GNMTA, neither has the Ministry stopped the payment of trainee allowances to students of government health training institutions.”

The statement is signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari.

His statement explains that the academic year of Nursing training institutions spans 10 months, from September to June.

The statement continues that the 2019/2020 final year students who were scheduled to complete their final exams in June 2020 had part of their academic calendar disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown of parts of the country.

However, it said there was a window for the final-year students to return to school in October 2020 to complete their program. Government in 2020, paid three months arrears to the 2019/2020 batch.

It said students who were admitted to schools in the 2020/2021 academic year could not start their academic work in September 2020 due to covid-19 and had to start in January. They are due for three months trainee allowances – January, February and March.

The Ministry of Health has processed the payment for January, February and March which have been approved by the Ministry of Finance, it said, emphasizing that Government does not owe anybody beyond the three-month arrears in the works.