Health Ministry to address concerns of striking nurses

The Ministry of Health has assured nurses and midwives that efforts were being made to address the concerns raised in their petition presented to the Minister.

A statement issued by the Ministry and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday said it had come to the notice of the Ministry that in 2013 and April 2014 an amount of GH? 150 million was paid to some trainee midwives and nurses as part of their trainee/ internship allowances but this had not been acknowledged by the trainees.

It said in view of this the Ministry has requested for details of these recipients from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department. The statement said the Ministry was also investigating a situation where those doing their Rotation or National Service collect double allowances from the Ministry and the National Service Secretariat respectively.

The statement said it was against the Public Service Commission Act which states that “one cannot draw double salaries/allowances from the Consolidated Fund”. It said all those who had received the above allowances and clearly do not deserve them would be made to refund them.

“It is our hope that at the end of this exercise it will be clear who have already received their allowances and those who haven’t yet received. In the face of this, we want the trainee midwives and nurses to remain calm whilst the Ministry works at resolving their concerns,” the statement said.