The president of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, has made a passionate plea to healthcare professionals to serve in all regions of the country, especially in the underprivileged areas where they are most needed.
He made this appeal on Friday, June 16, at the 60th-anniversary celebration of the University of Ghana’s School of Nursing and Midwifery. He reminded them of their noble predecessors who willingly worked in any part of the country when the conditions were even more challenging than they are now.
His remarks come in the wake of some health workers rejecting postings to remote areas in some parts of the country.
“Our schools of Nursing and Midwifery have earned a good reputation and have trained excellent nurses and midwives who easily find employment in all parts of the world.
“However, after 66 years of our nationhood, we still do not have adequate numbers of healthcare professionals with the right mix of skills and expertise in some of our regions, districts, and deprived communities, especially in the newly-created regions and districts.
“It is particularly distressing to hear of nurses refusing postings. I want to use this opportunity to encourage all health practitioners to follow the admirable example of your great forebearers who readily accepted postings in their early years at a time when the national infrastructure was even more difficult than it is.
“Therefore I am appealing to you as earnestly as I can to serve in all regions and district hospitals where your services are most required,” he said.
The National Service Scheme Secretariat (NSS) on Saturday, June 10, 2023, released postings of a total of 12,295 nurses.
The postings cover personnel who enrolled to undertake their one-year compulsory national service at various approved health facilities across the country for the 2023/2024 service year.
