The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees’ Association has appealed to the government to pay the 10-month trainee allowance owed its members.
The Ashanti and Bono Ahafo zonal president of the association, Emmanuel Nyantah, made the appeal at the group’s 31st annual delegates conference in Kumasi.
Nyantah bemoaned the hardship trainees face, particularly with the non-payment of their allowances coupled with consistent increase in school fees.
While expressing appreciation to the Akufo-Addo government for re-instating the trainee allowance, Nyantah emphasised the need for the government to pay the outstanding debts as a matter of urgency.
The trainee allowance was scrapped by the John Mahama administration.
Nyantah said, “I want to extend a heartfelt gratitude to the government of Ghana for re-instating the nurse trainee allowance in 2017… we say ‘ayekoo’. Government has done enough by allocating 400 cedis per month to all trainees. However, there has been inconsistent payment of trainees’ allowance.
“Currently, government owes trainees for more than 10 months. There is consistent increase in school fees and delayed payment of rotational nurses and midwives’ allowance. We hope all stakeholders involved take these concerns into consideration.”
Nyantah called on the government to adopt effective policies and measures to combat the migration of nurses and midwives from the country.
The zonal president stressed the need to review the salary structure for nurses and midwives as an incentive to stay in the country and contribute their expertise to the healthcare sector.
He said, “People see that the conditions of service in other countries are well structured and are good although some of them are also calling for salary increments. When you compare theirs to ours, theirs is relatively better hence the nurses’ migration.
“If the salaries of nurses are going to be structured very well, then I think nurses would want to stay in their home country, so government should find better ways of appreciating nurses in the country.”
