A Coalition of Unemployed Nursing Graduates in the Northern Zone has issued a final reminder to President Akufo-Addo and the Health Ministry to clear them for postings or face agitations.
The groups – Qualified Nurse Assistant Clinical (NAC) and Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP) in the Northern Zone, said they will stage unrelenting picketing at the health ministry headquarters if government fails to post them after two weeks.
At a press conference in Tamale, February 6, 2018, the group declared in a statement that it has over 600 members who completed training in 2016 still sitting unemployed despite numerous pledges by the government.
Liraase Edmond, spokesperson for the groups in the statement said they were the first nurses to have completed without trainee allowance and also rendered 40% health care service without compensation. The group said they want to be compensated with posting.
The Nurse Assistants cried out to government that they were “still at home in agony without postings”.
According to the group, their stay at home without practicing was more harmful and further delay could exacerbate the situation. Worsening the situation, according to the Coalition, was the fact that they are the only batch to stay home without posting for more than two years.
It also lamented that despite their situation, they were still under obligation to pay yearly dues to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to have their Auxiliary Identification Numbers (AIN) renewed, which requires working experience, but they have been left unemployed for more than 15 months now.
The unemployed nurses are seeking more clarity from the Health Ministry on the delicate issue of bonding, saying government has been unfair in their last minute efforts to frustrate their career.
“This unexpected mishap has ignited anxiety,frustration and suffering among us, such that we have lost hope in the gentle approach of the government towards our plight and has called for agitation,” Edmond said in the statement.
The group has therefore issued a two-week ultimatum to government to respond to their grievances and take necessary steps to post them without any further delay or face massive protest after the two weeks ultimatum elapse.
“We are now like a burden on our parents now. How can a parent pay 50m old cedis just to get the child through education only for the child to come out and be a burden? It’s just disheartening” a female unemployed graduate nurse complained in a sideline interview.
She continued, “So we are saying that, the government should please…that we are begging, for only one week, we want to hear a positive response from them; only a week and after the one week, we will not listen to anybody again. We will go there, I mean we are going to picket.”
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