Minister feeds picketing jobless nurses

A deputy Minister of Agriculture George Oduro went to the rescue of some irked, jobless and hungry nurses who have been picketing at the Ministry of Health in the last 24 hours.

Mr. Oduro provided the hungry young protestors with boxes of water and food to save them from dehydration and starvation.

The bonded nurses and midwives are on the neck of the government to provide them with jobs, describing assertions by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that 11,000 of them have already been posted as false.

“You’ve been here since yesterday and at least you have to eat,” the minister said to the excitement of the aggrieved nurses.

However, they roared when Mr. Oduro added: “And you have to go home and shower as well.”

“I don’t work at the Ministry of Health… I was passing by and heard you people have been here since yesterday so this is for your welfare,” the deputy minister added.

Speaking to Starr News’ Daniel Lartey after his presentation, he stated: “I did this on humanitarian grounds. I’m here because of their welfare and will talk to them to go home and if they agree fine.”




Meanwhile, the Deputy Health Minister Tina Mensah has revealed that moves are underway by government to revoke the bonding arrangement between trainee nurses and the government of Ghana.

The comment by the Weija MP comes on the back of the protest being staged at the premises of the Health ministry by unposted midwives and psychiatric nurses. The nurses numbering over 900 slept at the compound of the ministry on Monday to press home their demand.

Speaking to Starr News, Madam Mensah said the bonding law must be reviewed in order to take the pressure off government.

“The ministry is looking to review this bonding, we are considering that because coming to do all these things here… a lot of private schools are also into the training of nurses and everybody is training because they know that when you finish you are bonded for someone to get you a job.

“So the enrollment and the numbers are just increasing everywhere; after all you may not need the numbers at the same time so you must know the limit and how many you need at a particular time,” she said.

Former Health minister under the erstwhile NDC administration Alex Segbefia last year gave hints that the ministry was considering ways to terminate the bonding arrangement. The government of Ghana introduced the bonding arrangement in 2005 to curb the brain drain in the health sector which was affecting health delivery in the country.