3,400 health professionals get clearance to apply for postings

Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, has disclosed that financial clearance has been secured for about 3,400 Allied Health professionals across the country.

The clearance enables health professionals to apply for postings to various public health centres spread across Ghana.

“We had a backlog of close to 4,000 people. As we speak, the government has given a financial clearance of about 3,400 and the portal will be open in the coming weeks so they can go online and apply and be posted across the country,” Dr Okoe Boye told Citi News on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

The Deputy Minister was speaking during an induction ceremony for 170 Allied Health graduates on Wednesday.

The induction ceremony was held at the behest of the Allied Health Profession Council.

The issue of a lack of clearance for the allied health professionals has been a major issue since 2017.

Unemployed health professionals had accused the government of failing to give them the clearance to be employed.

During the active days of the coronavirus testing, some allied health professionals played key roles.

Speaking at the induction ceremony, Dr Oko Boye urged the inductees not to reject postings to remote communities.

He noted that since he took up this office, there has been a lot of pressure on the Ministry for reposting.

“People who have been posted to other regions apart from Greater Accra and Ashanti Region are coming back asking us to re-route them to Accra and Kumasi.”

“You cannot have a situation where 80 to 90 per cent of all our staff are caught up in only two regions,” Dr Oko Boye said.