The Deputy Minister for Health, Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah, has urged unemployed private nurses to desist from picketing to demand employment, as their action does not tickle the Akufo-Addo government one bit.

The Coalition of Unemployed Private Nurses (COUPN) has given the government a 10-day ultimatum to find its members jobs or face a demonstration.

The group has accused the government of gross discrimination in securing its members jobs.

But speaking to Bola Ray on Starr Chat on Starr FM Wednesday, Tina Mensah who’s also Member of Parliament (MP) for Mallam Gbawe, stated that government only does the private nurses favour by employing them, so they should desist from giving unnecessary pressure.

“One thing that I want to make clear to the private nurses is that we are not under any obligation to employ them, we don’t have any bond or MoU that states that they should finish and we employ them. It’s a favour we’re doing them and not obligatory, I want to make it clear to them that it is not when they come and picket that is when we employ them. When they picket that does not tickle us because we have to go to the Finance Ministry and it’s from one purse that everybody is chopping from, every ministry is getting its budget from the Finance Ministry so it’s as and when it’s possible that we employ people.”

The aggrieved nurses, who said they have been home since 2012, explained that they have participated in several discussions with the ministries involved to get their grievances addressed but to no avail.

The irate nurses have subsequently given the government a 10-day ultimatum for appropriate responses to their situation or else they will embark on a series of demonstrations across the country.

The spokesperson for the group, Doreen Boateng, told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Monday, 18 March 2019 that the president promised not to discriminate against any group of persons but has reneged on his vow with actions, which proves that the government feels nurses trained at private facilities are “irrelevant”.

Hundreds of trained nurses from private institutions besieged the premises of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2017 over the same issues.

They defied the presence of the police, forced their way into the ministry and brought business to a temporary halt with some sleeping overnight.

Interestingly, the same Deputy Health Minister Tina Mensah has gave assurance that graduate nurses who are protesting neglect in government postings will soon be posted, adding their neglect in the recent recruitment was an oversight and will be fixed soon.

The graduate nurses on Wednesday protested what they say is a deliberate attempt by the government to neglect them as it begins recruitment of health professionals across the country.

According to the nurses, the criteria and qualification requirement for the latest recruitment announced by the government does not include degree nurses. This will be the second year running that they would have been by-passed in a state recruitment.

“They have given some financial clearance and they thought yours (degree nurses) was part but it wasn’t. So I told them that the forget the degree nurses and so they are working on it. Very soon, it will be sorted,” she said.

The Ministry of Health on Monday announced the recruitment of various professionals under the health delivery structure of the country.

It comes after the Finance ministry gave the health ministry clearance for the recruitment of the professionals.

“Following a Financial Clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance for the recruitment of 2016 batch of the above-mentioned categories of Health Professionals from the Public Health Institutions, the Ministry of Health wishes to inform the general public, particularly, qualified trainees who fall within the above description that it will commence the recruitment process into the various agencies from Thursday, 21st March 2019.

“Therefore, qualified trainees who are part of these groups whose clearance has been received (as indicated in the attached sheet) and intend to work in the various agencies under the Ministry of Health are requested to formally apply online by logging onto the online application portal https://mohcrp.com and follow relevant instructions to select the preferred agency (GHS, CHAG, KBTH, KATH, TTH, CCTH, Police Hospital, MHA, Prisons Service, Ahmadiya Health Service),” the ministry said in a statement.