The Deputy Minister for Health, Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah has urged unemployed private nurses to desist from picketing to demand employment as their action does not move the Ministry one bit.
The Coalition of Unemployed Private Nurses (COUPN) has given the government a 10-day ultimatum to find its members jobs or face a demonstration.
The group has accused the government of gross discrimination in securing its members. jobs.
The aggrieved nurses, who said they have been home since 2012, explained that they have participated in several discussions with the ministries involved to get their grievances addressed but to no avail.
The irate nurses have subsequently given the government a 10-day ultimatum for appropriate responses to their situation or else they will embark on a series of demonstrations across the country.
The spokesperson for the group, Doreen Boateng, told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Monday, 18 March 2019 that the president promised not to discriminate against any group of persons but has reneged on his vow with actions, which proves that the government feels nurses trained at private facilities are “irrelevant”.
Hundreds of trained nurses from private institutions besieged the premises of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2017 over the same issues.
They defied the presence of the police, forced their way into the ministry and brought business to a temporary halt with some sleeping overnight.
Speaking to Bola Ray on Starr Chat on Starr FM Wednesday, Hon. Tina Mensah who’s also MP for Mallam Gbawe stated that government only does the private nurses favour by employing them so they should desist from giving unnecessary pressure.
“One thing that I want to make clear to the private nurses is that we are not under any obligation to employ them, we don’t have any bond or MoU that states that they should finish and we employ them. It’s a favour we’re doing them and not obligatory, I want to make it clear to them that it is not when they come and picket that is when we employ them. When they picket that does not tickle us because we have to go to the Finance Ministry and it’s from one purse that everybody is chopping from, every ministry is getting its budget from the Finance Ministry so it’s as and when it’s possible that we employ people.”
