Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid has revealed that provisions have been made in the 2018 budget to employ 27,000 nurses before the end of this year.

According to the Minister, although government is no longer obliged to engage nurses after their studies, processes are ongoing to recruit 32000 health personnel out of which 27,000 will be nurses.

Two groups; the “Unemployed Nurse Assistants Association 2016” and the “Coalition of Unposted Private Nurses” have been picketing the premises of the Health Ministry to put pressure on the Ministry to capture their data and get them posted.

Commenting on the issue at a press briefing in Accra Tuesday, the Information Minister urged the nurses to exercise restraint as government would fulfil its promise of getting all qualified health personnel engaged.

He said since the NPP government assumed office in 2017, more than 16000 unemployed graduates from 2012 to 2015 have been employed.

“It is important to state that when we came into office in 2017, there was a backlog of graduates 2012 to 2015 to be absorbed. As we speak nearly all those in that category have been absorbed. Since 2017, government has engaged more than 16000 of those who graduated between 2012 and 2015,” he revealed.

Mr. Hamid also assured nurses who graduated from private nursing institutions from 2012 to 2016 of posting as government is currently capturing their data in order to engage them.

“This is being done with the 2016 batch of graduates from government institutions who are currently the ones picketing at the Ministry of Health. We’re, therefore, appealing to them whiles also assuring them that we’re working to get them engaged as soon as our validation processes are complete,” he stressed.