A group by name Coalition of Unemployed Nurses and Midwives in the Upper West Region has joined their counterparts in demand for employment, threatening to storm the seat of government.
The nurses as a matter of urgency want government to expedite action on their employment and subsequent postings to health facilities across the country within a week or they relocate to the Flagstaff House until their concerns are addressed.
At a press conference held in Wa, the group said they are frustrated and disappointed at government’s “lackadaisical attitude” towards employing them after two years of their training.
Members of the coalition, comprising 112 nurses and midwives who completed various nursing training colleges in 2013 and 2014, are yet to be absorbed into the health sector by government.
They further explained that due to “a train and retain” bond they were made to sign before their enrolment into the various nursing training colleges in the region, they are unable to get employment in private health facilities.
Secretary of the group, Abu Stephen Sunbamaala, who addressed the conference, said, “We have run out of patience, our skills are becoming obsolete and our professionalism fading. Staying without jobs is not only frustrating but demotivates our parents in taking care of our younger ones in school.”
Mr Sunbamaala wondered why government refused to engage them “but rather embarked on recruiting untrained nurses under the Youth Employment Programme.”
A few weeks ago, about 2,000 bonded unemployed nurses and midwives who are waiting their posting to various hospitals also raised similar concerns in a release.
For them, government is obligated to employ them under the terms of the bond they were made to sign however the employer is yet to fulfill its part of the agreement.
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