National Vice Chairperson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anita Desoso has blamed the current unemployment status of nurses and health professionals on their hasty decision to vote the New Patriotic Party (NPP) into power.
President Akufo-Addo, as part of his 2016 campaign message, assured nurses across the country of the full restoration of their allowances if he is voted into power.
According to him, the training of more healthcare and education professionals was of the utmost importance, hence the need to restore the allowances.
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The health professionals who bought into the campaign message now seem to have their hopes dashed as they continue in the fight against delayed financial clearance for employment.
However, Madam Desoso maintained that the agitated health professionals should have given it a thorough thought before voting for the NPP while claiming the NDC had good intentions for them.
She explained that in a bid to find a way to solve the issue of Doctors going on strike in the country, former president John Mahama planned on transferring some of the trained nurses abroad for income generation to settle the Doctors.
This she said, would have eased the financial constraints on the erstwhile government who resorted to the “emergency” import of Cuban Doctors.
“During our era JDM, he said we needed more nurses so that we can export some of them then we will be getting something small from salary. The reason being that anytime Doctors go on strike, we have to call on Cuba, emergency. So we thought that why can’t NDC also implement such a policy,” she stated.
Unhappy about the situation, Anita Desoso said the nurses did not heed to the ex-president’s advice neither did they have confidence in the proposal. Hence went ahead to choose the current government.
Speaking to www.ghanaweb.com, she lamented, “They didn’t believe us and they rushed and voted for them (NPP). As I’m talking to you now, January up to April, they have not given them any allowance. Even yesterday, their demonstration, they sent a petition to the Minister. He didn’t even say a word and they got angry. So I will just wish and pray that Ghanaians should know that you cannot always rely on your stomach –what you eat today but think about your future.”
The minority has lashed out at government on several occasions for ‘deceiving’ Ghanaians into believing their many assurances such as One District One Factory Policy, restoration of the ‘dead’ National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), building of more health facilities which to them, are yet to be implemented.
Madam Desoso, on the other hand, insisted that unlike the late President John Atta Mills who foresaw that he could not fulfil all his promises he made to Ghanaians and he quickly apologized to the people, President Akufo-Addo should have also come out clean.
“When we came and our late president saw that it won’t help us because we were not having resources, he came out publicly to say that he is sorry and that he promised of one term premium but he has seen that it cannot be possible.
“…so if you are a leader and you want to implement a policy and you know that it will not be feasible just be bold enough to say it because one; if you want National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to work effectively, you need hospitals, CHPS compounds. So let’s ask ourselves, how many hospitals, regional hospitals has NPP ever built? None. How many district hospitals were they able to build? Few. What about Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds? She asked rhetorically.