Replacing Professional Health Workers with SHS leavers is Risky to lives –Minority
The government through the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) plans to recruit unemployed Senior High School (SHS) graduates as replacements for trained and licensed professionals in the healthcare sector as a cost-saving measure.
The information comes on the back of worrying reports that many healthcare professionals are joining the bandwagon to seek greener pastures abroad.
The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) made a startling revelation in June this year that in the first quarter of 2022 alone, over 3,000 trained nurses and midwives left the shores of Ghana to seek greener pastures abroad.
To compound the situation, many doctors and nurses are also said to be unemployed and at home after completing their housemanship due to the government’s failure to absorb them into the healthcare system.
In view of that, the Minority members of the Health Committee of Parliament at a press conference on Thursday, September 8, 2022, described the attempt as very dangerous.
Ranking Member of the Committee, Hon Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who addressed the media believed replacing trained and licensed professionals with SHS graduates for cheap political returns will worsen an already precarious situation.
“General practitioners, specialists, and consultants have all joined a long line of Ghanaian health professionals waiting for clearance or job offers from abroad in order to leave this country.”
“The situation has become critical to the point that Ghana is currently experiencing losses of general practitioners and specialists needed to handle cases across the healthcare continuum.”
“Under these prevailing conditions, one would expect the government to ramp up its uptake of trained and licensed nurses, doctors, physician assistants, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and other health professionals to mitigate the impact of the dwindling numbers of these professionals on the Ghanaian public.’
“Unfortunately, our checks rather reveal a dangerous attempt to replace trained and licensed professionals with unemployed SHS graduates for cheap political returns that will make an already precarious situation even worse.
“If a country working within the limits of scarce resources, has in excess of 19,000 diploma nurses, 10,729-degree nurses and 1,000 trained doctors who have completed their housemanship sitting at home, what logical reasoning warrants the intake of untrained and unlicensed SHS leavers into our healthcare system,” he asked?
The Minority condemned comparisons with past occurrences when SHS leavers were employed to assist trained staff in mundane duties and argued these happened because there were then fewer health professionals.
The situation today, he said, is different because there are trained and licensed professionals idling at home who should rather be recruited to perform these duties.
“This new government initiative amounts to misplaced priority and as a country, we cannot afford to abandon our investments in human capital like the many abandoned government projects littered across the country.”
“It is therefore in the interest of the government and all its agents and assigns to do all they can to avoid causing financial loss to the state,” he warned.
The Minority however called on the government to urgently prioritise the employment of trained, qualified, and licensed healthcare professionals before resorting to recruiting other groups into the healthcare delivery system.
This, the Caucus said, is prudent and necessary considering the current high attrition rate within the public sector if the object of protection of the public purse is to remain paramount.
Full Press Statement of Minority
Press Statement by the Minority in Parliament calling on the government to prioritise the uptake of trained, qualified and licensed health service professionals before recruiting other groups of persons into the health service delivery system.
We are indeed grateful for your presence this afternoon to discuss this very important matter of resourcing our health institutions with trained, qualified, and licensed professionals.
We the Minority in Parliament find it highly unfortunate and irresponsible that with the large numbers of trained doctors, nurses, and other allied health professionals at home and waiting to be absorbed into the public health system, the government would rather opt to recruit untrained and unlicensed high school leavers to fill in gaps within the healthcare system.
These ever-widening gaps in professional care within the health system are the direct consequence of the government’s lack of sensitivity and concern for the welfare of health professionals.
Contrary to the propaganda and noise the government makes about addressing the welfare needs of health professionals, most professionals can confirm that their conditions of service have deteriorated over the years.
The economic challenges of hyperinflation and unprecedented depreciation of the Ghana Cedi under the Bawumia-led economic management team have eroded whatever value accrues as meagre salaries of all Ghanaian workers.
The government’s lack of concern for public health workers in this hyper inflationary period has exacerbated an already bad economic situation leading to high attrition among the workforce. In June this year, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) informed Ghanaians that in the first quarter of 2022, over 3,000 trained nurses and midwives left the shores of Ghana to seek greener pastures abroad.
The story is not different among practicing doctors in Ghana. Alarmingly, General practitioners, specialists, and consultants have all joined a long line of Ghanaian health professionals waiting for clearance or job offers from abroad in order to leave this country. The situation has become critical to the point that Ghana is currently experiencing losses of general practitioners and specialists needed to handle cases across the healthcare continuum.
Under these prevailing conditions, one would expect that the government will ramp up its uptake of trained and licensed nurses, doctors, physician assistants, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and other health professionals in order to mitigate the impact of the dwindling numbers of these professionals on the Ghanaian public. Unfortunately, our checks rather reveal a dangerous attempt to replace trained and licensed professionals with unemployed SHS graduates for cheap political returns that will make an already precarious situation even worse.
If a country working within the limits of scarce resources, has in excess of 19,000 diploma nurses, 10,729-degree nurses and 1,000 trained doctors who have completed their housemanship sitting at home, what logical reasoning warrants the intake of untrained and unlicensed SHS leavers into our healthcare system?
There are some who would quickly retort that Kufuor, Atta Mills and Mahama administrations all employed young and unemployed SHS leavers to assist trained staff in what they consider as the mundane duties of record keeping etc. However, during those periods medical training institutions were fewer with even fewer numbers of trained professionals warranting the addition of GYEEDA/YEA recruits to provide assistance at the basic levels. It was also not government policy to leave trained professionals unemployed while recruiting untrained school leavers.
This new government initiative amounts to a misplaced priority and as a country, we cannot afford to abandon our investments in human capital like the many abandoned government projects littered across the country.
It is therefore in the interest of the government and all its agents and assigns to do all they can to avoid causing financial loss to the state.
As Minority in Parliament, we are calling on government to as a matter of urgency prioritise the uptake of trained, qualified and licensed healthcare professionals before recruiting any other group of persons into the health service delivery system. This is necessary considering the current high attrition rate within the public health sector and also prudent if the objective of the protection of the public purse is to remain paramount.
Thank you.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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