The Minority in Parliament has called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, rescind its decision to recruit Senior High School (SHS) graduates for CHPS compounds.
According to the Caucus, Ghana has invested so much into the training and licensing of several health professionals who are currently not employed.
They, therefore, cannot fathom why the government will decide to train SHS graduates and pay allowances when the backlog of unemployed health workers could have been cleared.
Addressing a press briefing, the Ranking Member on the Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, queried why government officials will fly out for medical care when there are good health facilities in Ghana.
“We have a district Hospital at Juaboso, why didn’t the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta come there when he was sick?” he queried while answering a question on the cost of recruiting these trained officers, stressing health can never be expensive.
The Deputy Ranking member on the Health Committee, Elizabeth Agyare, said the move was unnecessary.
Madam Agyare, who doubles as the Techiman North Member of Parliament, said the development will be a big blow, especially following a revelation by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association that about 3,000 nurses and midwives have been lost.
“There are excesses of 19,000 diploma nurses, 10,729-degree nurses and 1,000 trained doctors who have finished their horsemanship but most of these people are unemployed,” she bemoaned.