Government cuts intake of Nurses to 60%

The Government has directed that all public nursing and midwifery schools reduce their intake to only 60 percent of the school’s capacity.

A statement by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health stated that the directive should be followed strictly by all public nursing and midwifery schools as the academic year starts in September.

In an interview on Morning Starr Wednesday, Nana Boateng Agyeman, spokesperson for the Nursing and Midwifery Council explained that the policy is to improve on quality of nurses and to produce nurses to meet the demands of the health sector.

“We want to produce [nurses] to meet demand…I won’t call it a cut down…Its about quality, we want to train health professionals who will give quality healthcare,” Mr. Agyeman told Francis Abban host of Morning Starr.

The directive comes days after several nursing and midwifery groups picketed at the Health Ministry to demand immediate postings.

A section of the public has also slammed government on the introduction of the quota system, stating that the policy is a smart move to help the Akufo-Addo led government restore the nurses’ trainee allowance withdrawn by the previous NDC administration.

The restoration of the nurses’ trainee allowance was a major campaign promise by President Akufo-Addo ahead of the 2016 elections.

But according to Mr. Agyeman, the decision to reduce intake is just to improve quality.

“As far as the policy is concerned this is not connected to the restoring of the allowance…we are looking at quality,” Mr. Agyeman added.