Many Ghanaian health workers, especially nurses, are exiting the shores of the State due to unfavorable conditions for practitioners at the sector, Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has admitted.
He says although there are shortage of health workers at some places in the country, especially in the rural areas, government cannot force people to stay in the country and work, the reason the Akufo-Addo administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Barbados to be supplying them with health workers.
According to Dr. Nsiah-Asare, “we are in a free world. For example, you are here. I don’t think TV3 or Media General can force you to stay here forever. You even go from one place to another place within the country. The same thing is true.”
“COVID-19 has made health professional work not too attractive in the Western world. Because you know that there were a lot of people who died who were front-line health workers. I have heard that even the training schools, they find it difficult to get people to go to the training schools.
“But we have a lot of young people who even want to enter the training schools [in Ghana]. So the solution to it, to me, is not the unethical way of coming to take people away. You cannot force anybody to stay in their country,” he told Keminni Amanor on Hot Issues Sunday, June 09, 2024.
He, however, indicated that government is doing all it can to better the conditions of service to ensure the nurses are motivated to stay.
Ghana-Barbados MoU
The Akufo-Addo government signed an MoU with Barbados for the recruitment of nurses from Ghana Friday, November 15, 2019, at the Jubilee House in Accra.
The agreement, was signed when when the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Motley, paid a courtesy call on President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. As part of her official visit to Ghana, the country saw the initial recruitment of over 100 Ghanaian nurses.
There have since been concerns over the move, as some had suggested that the nurses could have rather been absorbed in Ghana’s Health Service due to the deficit at the sector.
However, then Deputy Health Minister, Alexander Abban, noted that it would be better to send those nurses abroad, given the salary challenges with Ghana’s Health Service.
Some years down the lane, the President’s Advisor on Health, Dr. Nsiah-Asare, has also noted that although Ghana’s health sector has shortages, government cannot force people to stay in the country.
Brain drain: Close to 6k nurses have left Ghana since August 2023 – GRNMA President reveals
