Increase Salary Of Nurses To Curb Mass Migration- General Secretary, GRNMA Tells Gov’t
The General Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Dr David Tenkorang-Twum has called on the government to increase the salary of nurses in the country.
He explained that salary increments for the nurses will curb their travel overseas in search of well-paid jobs.
The health sector is currently facing a repugnant challenge as well-trained nurses in various hospitals and those awaiting postings are finding their way out of the country.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang-Twum in a statement recently bemoaned the number of nurses abandoning their profession to travel abroad.
He disclosed that current data shows that 304 health workers, including doctors and nurses, have applied for leave without salaries.
“When we did the analysis for the first quarter of 2023, we realized that about 304 applied for leave without pay which means that they have left the service, but additional information indicates that most of them have left the country and these are very skillful health workers with the right knowledge, attitude, and skill to do the job, but it seems that they have been attracted outside the country”.
“This is worrying in the sense that these are workers that we need to run the health system in the country and the government is doing well by providing health infrastructure and if our people are leaving the country, how do we run this system?”, he added.
The General Secretary of GRNMA who spoke on Joy and monitored by The Ghana Report said the mad rush for greener pastures by Ghanaian nurses is the result of poor remuneration, hence the government must intervene to curb the situation.
“What I think the government should do is to be able to raise the market premium. Just pegging the market premium to the current basic salaries will be enough to stem the attrition or the exodus”.
“I’m not even saying to increase the market premium, I’m saying that they should just tie it to the basic salaries. It will certainly give a certain respite to the nurses and midwives and they will be prepared to stay”, Dr Twum noted.