The Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has urged the government to increase health personnel remuneration to encourage them to work in the country.
This comes after the Ghana Health Service revealed that a total of 3,688 health personnel, that are professionals and caregivers have left the country to seek greener pastures within the last three years, citing poor working conditions as the major reason.
The majority leader, Osei Kyei while addressing the issue in parliament stated that the government must consider an increment in remuneration to deal with the trend.
“Mr. Speaker, I think that we should look at the remuneration [of nurses]. If we look at the compensation, it was over and above what was allocated and if people have left, the compensation should then climb up. We should do a proper audit of the nurses who have left to know the deficit and should be able to employ to replace those who have exited.”
The Ghana Health Service, as part of efforts to address the worrying concern, said it has revised and doubled study leave for unprofessional nurses as far back as 2021 and anticipates that by the middle of next year, most of these unprofessional nurses that took advantage would have qualified to fill the gap created.