By Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), raises serious concerns regarding their compensation.
During an interview with Bernard Avle on The Point of View on Citi TV on Workers’ Day, May 1, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo disclosed that the service conditions for nurses and midwives are below expectations.
She highlighted the challenges faced by Ghanaian nurses and midwives, emphasizing their diligent work with limited resources and inadequate compensation. Ofori-Ampofo expressed optimism for improved service conditions and the provision of quality equipment to facilitate their duties.
“The conditions of Ghanaian nurses and midwives could be much better. At the moment, we are yearning for better remuneration and better conditions of service, in terms of better equipment to work with, other logistics, and everything in between. So, our condition is not up to the level that we expect. But we’re just continuing to work with the limited resources we have and trying to do our best for our patients and the Ghanaian population as it is.”
She stressed, “We’re keeping our fingers crossed for better working conditions in the nearest future. And a place where we will see full implementation of our collective agreements and better opportunities for pensions. The reality about the pay is that it’s not good.”
The GRNMA President criticized the government for not addressing the backlog of trained nurses and midwives awaiting employment.
“Of course, they will picket because if you’re licensed to practice and the government is not able to employ you, then that is a source of worry for any individual and that is what we’re facing. Because even as we speak, the 2020/2021 batch who are done with their rotation are waiting to be employed. The expectation is that the government will employ them after that.”
She suggested restructuring the training modalities for nurses to generate revenue for the country.
“If we’re able to restructure our training modalities for nurses, we can cash in returns for ourselves as a country because other countries, like the Philippines, are doing it. They train large numbers of nurses, and they are able to export them to the UK and other countries and earn some money for the economy,” she opined.
She attributed the rise in nurse migration to other countries to low salaries, acknowledging the uneven distribution of nurses.
“We have an inequitable distribution of nurses across the country. Yes, sometimes people refuse to go to the remotest areas of the country to practice. But indeed, if you go around, you will find nurses and midwives in the CHIPS compound, under-serviced areas.
“The other issue is that most of our colleagues are migrating from Ghana to other places of high income to work. They are leaving to seek greener pastures elsewhere, which is what is accounting for the shortfall. They are leaving because of the problems we have with our salaries in Ghana as compared to more developed countries,” she observed.
