Deputy Minister of Health Tina Mensah has assured members of the Coalition of Bonded Unposted Allied Health Professionals that government will address issues concerning their employment “within a week” from the day of picketing.

Members of the group embarked on a protest and decided to picket at the Ministry of Health (MoH) to register their displeasure at the Ministry’s inability to employ them on Monday 8 May.

The allied health professionals numbering 495 said their action had become necessary since all efforts to get the attention of the ministry to address their plight had proved futile.

This follows the financial clearance given some 4,800 clinical nurses to begin work in the various health facilities across the country following a similar picketing.

The allied health professionals who were left out of the recent employment said in a statement: “As citizens and not spectators, we can only fight for our share in the employment of health professionals after realising we were not part of the just-released financial clearance for over 4,800 clinicians with whom we completed and/or served with in the same year frame.

“We are aware the government is in a hurry. We, therefore, don't want our issue to be an oversight, hence we are employing the now efficacious way – picketing – to register our displeasure and demand our right.”

But Ms Mensah, who addressed the media, asked for a week to have the issues addressed.

Meanwhile, the President of the Coalition, Solomon Yeboah, has said the health professionals hope the Deputy Minister “will keep her promise” as they will not hesitate to return to the ministry with intensified protests to press home their demands.