Govt doesn't owe trainee nurses and midwives eight months

The government through the Ministry of Health has refuted claims it owes members of the Ghana Nurse-Midwife Trainees’ Association eight months’ worth of allowances.

The Ghana Nurses and Midwife Trainees’ Association, had threatened to embark on series of actions if the government fails to pay eight months of allowance arrears in the next one week.

“Notwithstanding, as a Government that has urged its people to be citizens and not spectators, we wish to use this role of us being citizens to crave the indulgence of the President, H.E Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and the government of the day on the halt in payment of the trainee allowances since June 2020 which has posed a lot of threats and difficulties to the trainee nurse and midwife. Similarly to note, some students are being owed arrears for the past 13 months.

“Moreover, the Ministry of Health in 2019 came out with a directive that students upon reporting to school are expected to pay 60% of their total fees before they are allowed to attend lectures. It is an undeniable fact that students from poor backgrounds depend solely on the allowance but due to the failure of the government to do so in that regard, students are psychologically traumatized by the humiliation of just not being in the capacity to pay their tuition bills coupled with the brunt of losing lectures”, parts of a statement released by the G.T.N.M.A read.

The statement further added that attempts to get officials at the Ministry of Health to resolve the issue has yielded little results.

But the Ministry in a press statement signed by the Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, said the claims by the group are not true.

“The Ministry of Health wishes to assure the public that it does not owe any student to the tune of eight months as stated in the press release from GNMTA, neither has the Ministry stopped the payment of trainee allowances to students of government health training institutions.

The Ministry in the statement however said it was on course to paying the three-month arrears of the trainees.

It said, in the meantime, the Ministry has processed the payment for January, February, and March 2021 for continuing students, which has been approved by the Ministry of Finance for the Controller and Accountant General to release the funds.