55,000 nurses recruited statement in the budget not accurate – GHS

Adnan Adams Mohammed 

The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the government has recruited 55,000 nurses to enhance healthcare delivery in the country when he delivered 2020 budget to Parliament, last week.

Apart from recruitments into the health sector, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government has also recruited tens of thousands of people into the various public sector programmes.

The minister’s statement has been disapproved by statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS). GHS facts sheet on nurses and midwives enrolment shows a total of 60,267 nurses and midwives as at 2016 (52,605 nurses and 7,662 midwives). Currently, there are 68,492 nurses and midwives. This means the total number of nurses employed since 2017 is 8,225, this contradicts the minister’s statement in parliament.  

“A further 138,026 Ghanaians have been recruited under various programmes to support public sector delivery”, the finance minister noted.

He also mentioned some other achievements of the government which he claims has put money in people’s pocket. 

“3.6 million Ghanaians have been registered under the national ID programmes while 1,000 sanitary facilities are under construction to address open defecation and 49,000 trainee nurses have been paid GHS468 million in allowances,” Mr Ofori-Atta noted.