Six members of the Coalition of Unemployed Nurses and Midwives have been arrested for staging a protest at the Ministry of Health today, October 21 2019.
The latest development follows members of the Coalition of Unemployed nurses picketing the Health Ministry today to demand clearance and immediate employment.
The Coalition is made up of public-trained nurses and midwives who graduated in 2017 and 2018 and have been home unemployed.
Speaking to Starr FM, a member of the Coalition Paul Selorm said the coalition notified the police before picketing the Health Ministry and demand the immediate release of their colleagues
'' Our protest was lawful we gave notice to the police so we don't see why the police has to arrest our leaders. We notified them about three weeks ago. We were waiting for a response from the police but we didn't get a response, and this was just picketing''.
''We are demanding for immediate employment because the 2017 Nursing Assistant Clinical (NAC), Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP) and diploma nurses are still sitting at home''.
He stated that the Coalition of Unemployed nurses and midwives has written to the Ministry of Health severally and have not gotten any response hence their decision to picket the Ministry today.
Mr Selorm further indicated that the Coalition has given the police 24 hours to release the nurse and midwives or else face their wrath
: ''My colleagues are at the central police station currently. We are giving the police 24 hours to do the needful else we will beseech the Central Police Station''. Â
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The government recently scrapped the system of bonding trainee nurses and midwives in the country. It comes on the back of its inability to employ the thousands of graduates currently pushing for jobs in the health sector.
The government in 2005 introduced the bonding of trainee nurses and midwives to curb the brain drain in the health sector.
Under the bonding system, nurses trained in public health training institutions had to serve in Ghana for five years before they could leave the country to practice elsewhere.
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