Restoration Of nursing trainee allowance is 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' - NDC MP

Member of Parliament for the people Juaboso Constituency in the Western Region, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has described the restoration of the nursing trainee allowance by President Akufo-Addo as a ‘419’ and ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul' scheme.

He explained that the NPP government has reduced the number of students who should have gained admission into the various public nursing training colleges by 22 percent in order for the government to restore the allowance which was cancelled by Mahama government.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, the former Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources asserted that the Mahama led NDC government admitted by 7,000 students into the nursing training colleges after the introduction of the student loan and cancellation of the allowance scheme.

But he added that Akufo-Addo’s government brought back the quota system and offered about 5,000 students the opportunity to gain admission into the nursing training colleges so as to save money to fulfil their campaign promise of paying nursing trainee allowance.

“We need to expose and explain the tricks, the 419 and the robbing Peter to pay Paul in the NPP government. The NPP has reduced the admission of nursing trainees’ intake by 22 percent. In 2016, the NDC government admitted about 7,000 trainees and in 2017, this [NPP] government about 5,000 trainees into the nursing training colleges.”

“This is the trick, 419 and robbing Peter to pay Paul because in effect, if you analyse it well, you will realise that the reduction in the intake of the students is about 50 percent. We have private nursing training colleges and public nursing training colleges but the government does not bear the cost of the private ones”.

He stressed that “this government has reduced the intake in the public nursing training institutions and pushed more students into the private training colleges so that they can restore the nursing trainee allowance to the few students in the public nursing training colleges”.

“This is the kind of tricks going on in the NPP government; many students were denied admission into the public nursing training colleges in order to restore the trainee allowance”, he reiterated.

He believed the restoration of the nursing trainee allowance is just scoring political points and not meant for the nation’s good.

“This (Mahama) is a visionary leader. You will agree with me that under NDC, there were more investments in the health sector. The bone of contention with the nursing trainees has been that we decided to migrate these students to student loan scheme and then allow the colleges to take their full capacities and also make way for more people to be admitted and get more nurses into the system, but the NPP argued that they will restore the allowance but they never said they will reduce the intake of students”, he stated.