General News of Thursday, 4 October 2018
Source: citinewsroom.com
2018-10-04
The Akufo-Addo government restored the teacher and nurses trainee allowances in 2017
The Coalition of Allied Health Professionals has indicated that trainee nurses may be forced to boycott the various health institutions by the end of October if their accumulated allowances are not paid.
The President of the group, Bright Bell in a Citi News interview said the trainee nurses have not been paid their allowances for the past six months.
The Akufo-Addo government in a run-up to the 2016 Presidential elections promised to restore the teacher and nurses trainee allowances scrapped by the previous government; a promise that was fulfilled in September 2017.
A few months after the initial payment, subsequent allowances have not been forthcoming.
“Our junior colleagues who are also in school and those who are currently doing rotation have also not been paid for over six months now. They are also agitating that by the close of this month if they do not receive the allowances, they will be forced to vacate all the Ministry of Health-sponsored schools and go back home because once their seniors even have challenges in getting jobs, there is no guarantee of job placement for them and there is no need to even keep training,” Bright Bell said.
Mr. Bell also indicated that they are unable to go through a mandatory license renewal since they have been unemployed for years.
In January 2018, trainee nurses complained about the non-payment of the allowance, but they began receiving the allowances for November and December 2017 after assurances before that month ended.
The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association, however, said the delays in the payment must end.
The issue of allowance for trainee nurses became a major campaign point in the 2016 elections after the New Patriotic Party promised to restore the payments which were scrapped by the Mahama government.
The government restored the allowances of GH¢400, effective September 2017 with an elaborate ceremony to the joy of the trainee nurses who had complained about the hardships they faced without those funds.
President Akufo-Addo said an amount of GH¢232 million had been allocated for the stipend, with the health trainees set to receive GH¢400 each month.