Alarm blows: Graduate Nurses Pay Bribe Of GH¢7,000.00 before secure postings
Tension is currently very high within the ranks of the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association (GUNMA) following the shocking revelations that scores of graduate nurses have paid bribes of GH¢7,000.00 before secure postings.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
Tension is currently very high within the ranks of the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association (GUNMA) following the shocking revelations that scores of graduate
nurses have paid bribes of GH¢7,000.00 before secure postings.
In a TikTok video interview, some unemployed graduate nurses revealed the corruption scandal and called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to, as a matter of urgency set up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the money-making scandal which has rocked the posting of unemployed graduate nurses in the country.
They cried out that a huge number of nurses who graduated in the past three years in the country have not to date been employed by the government after the completion of their training at the various government institutions, making their personal lives miserable.
They also mentioned that after passing their licensing examination in August 2013 and completing the mandatory 52-week rotation (National Service) in January 2015, they were hoping to be employed, but that had proved futile.
They observed that “unfortunately, however, government after committing a huge sum of taxpayers money (about GHc10,000 per trainee) into the training of these professionals has decided to waste this money, our skills and knowledge by keeping us unemployed while these taxpayers need us in the various health facilities and communities for curative and preventive services respectively.”
They pointed out that anytime they approached the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) to find out about their posting, the receptionists and secretary of the Minister would virtually turn them away, by making many false statements to the effect that the sector Minister was either in the meetings or traveled out of the country.
"We are making this statement to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to know that this has become the continuous behavior of the workers at the Ministry of Health, so we have scheduled Tuesday, May 17, 2022, to demonstrate against the government’s failure to provide clearance for our posting but we were told to hold on again.
"We are extremely frustrated to the extent that we don't know what to do because some of us have even traveled far away from Brong Ahafo Region to come to Accra," the scores of unemployed graduate nurses cried out.
They accused the Ministry of Health of engaging in selective justice in the posting of the unemployed graduate nursers to their various duty posts in the country.
"I know a colleague graduate nurse who came to meet me in the same health facility when l am doing my national service but she has been posted but l am still at home for three good years now after l completed the mandatory national service. I am asking President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo why is it that this is ongoing in our posting system in Ghana or because some of us don't have money.
"We are saying that our juniors who graduated after us were rather posted because they were made to pay huge money of GH¢7,000.00 before they were posted. We are saying that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo set up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the growing phenomenon of the monetization that has rocked the posting of the unemployed graduate nurses in the country," unemployed graduate nurses narrated her ordeal.
According to her, they have had several engagements with the Ministry of Health and President Nana Akufo-Addo over delays in their posting but yielded no positive result.
She said their continued stay in the house could destroy the skills acquired in School.
The current nurse-patient ratio status in the country is believed to be very pathetic and many are those who believe the government needs to double up efforts in arresting the situation.
But, surprisingly, according to GNMTA, “Government among other key stakeholders is not perturbed with the current abysmal status of the nurse-patient ratio in Ghana. That is, one nurse is to about twenty-five patients (1:25).
“The nurse to the population of one nurse to 1,251 Ghanaian citizens (1: 1251) is even worse; how can we attain quality healthcare? Meanwhile, we have qualified professionals ready to contribute optimistically and assiduously to the satisfaction of the nation as a whole.
GNMTA claimed that the health of Ghanaians would be at risk “if the knowledge and skills of these professionals are wasted any further.”
