Former Member of Parliament(MP) Â for North Dayi Constituency, George Loh has said government's decision to give quotas to nursing institutions in the country is a wrong move as it will deny people job opportunities.Â
Public and private institutions accredited to train nurses in Ghana will reduce their intake by almost 1,600 this year, according to a directive from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).Â
Last year, 7,335 students were admitted to the various institutions, but the number will reduce to 5,737 when the directive is implemented.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, Â Mr. Loh said, the development would worsen the already existing shortage of nurses in the country.Â
"There is already a deficiency in nurse to patient ratio as well as nurse to doctor ratio and given quotas would mean less nurses will be trained and the problem will also remain", he stated.Â
He added that, in Cuba, doctors are trained in Polytechnics and it's done perfectly because emphasis is placed quality. Ghana must seek to emulate this instead of cutting down the number.Â
"Quality assurance is very important and facilities must also be built to engage the nurses since the country needs them."
He said the development would rather deny people access to education, career and there will be adverse consequences on society.Â
Government must rather do some rationalization, keep the numbers, improve upon quality and eventually expand facilities.
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