Health Ministry unfazed by picketing

The Ministry of Health has said that fulfilling the demands of health professionals who picket does not put them in a subservient position.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, made this known after the ministry released the financial clearance of Bonded Unposted Allied Health Professionals who had picketed and spent the night there on Monday 22 May.

It is recalled that the Coalition of Bonded Unposted Nurses and Midwives were also given financial clearance and posted after they had picketed and spent two nights at the ministry.

But speaking to Class News’ Mercy Akrofi, Ms Mensah said the perception that the ministry becomes subservient when unemployed health professionals picket is wrong.

She noted that the release process to get the health professionals employed was long underway before the groups besieged the ministry.

“This is the impression I want to clear. People have the perception that when they picket then we rush to do their demands for them, but it is not so. When these [unemployed allied health professionals] people were here, I told them we’ve been chasing their demands for some time now and it is in the pipeline and it will come to fruition within the shortest time, but they didn’t believe me.

"And the clearance comes fortunately or unfortunately at a time when they come to picket here. But their picketing doesn’t have any effect on us having them posted".

"If there is no money, there is no money. If we have not factored them in the budget, we won’t have anything for them. But we did and we were chasing it, but it seems they weren’t patient enough to see it coming,” she stated.

Ms Mensah explained clearance sometimes delays because “we have various types of nurses to be posted and their number is so great and we need clearance for all of them”, adding: “Since we all have our funds from the Ministry of Finance…the budget has been read and whatever you captured on the budget you have to go for the monies and it’s not given all at once but you take it bit by bit.”