In an attempt to explain the cancellation of nursing allowances in 2014, Former President John Dramani Mahama disingenuously claimed that he cancelled the trainee allowance to make room for expansion in training facilities for nurses and also recruit more nurses.
In as much as he has demonstrated inconsistencies overtime on this subject, Mr. Mahama’s excuse is a lazy rationale just as it is untruthful if one critically examines the post-cancellation of allowance events . https://www.modernghana.com/news/531621/scrapping-nursing-trainee-allowance-knust-ndc-tein-lauds-pr.html
Two questions are important for probing his claim:
A. After the cancellation in 2014, was there any recruitment of nurses? If yes, how many?
B. After the cancellation in 2014, was there any expansion in training facilities for nurses? And, what was the nature of this expansion, if any and where were they done?
Mahama is an expensive risk that must be avoided by nurses and other medical professionals based on his recent history at the presidency. To the nursing students, Mr. Mahama can be likened to an expensive ponzi that is waiting to explode in their faces.
Mr. Mahama’s claim for the cancellation of nursing training allowance contradicts the records and facts when he was president.
First, Mr. Mahama is on record to have left a backlog of nurses over a 4 year period. This practically means that no recruitment of nurses officially happened under him from 2013 to 2016. https://citinewsroom.com/2019/06/govt-begins-recruitment-of-2012-2016-trained-but-unemployed-nurses/
Secondly, assuming the first claim is wrong, post the cancellation of the allowance in 2014, how many nurses were employed in 2014, 2015 and 2016? What is the record of expansion his government did in nursing training colleges? If indeed the cancellation was to make room for recruitment and expansion, we should see higher numbers of recruitment between 2014 and 2016. No record of such has been identified.
Lastly, in the run-up to the 2016 elections and with the pressure from the opposition NPP and students, his government rushed to nursing training colleges to make ‘table-top’ payments. While it was an afterthought, it showed the lack of policy credibility and consistency, exposing the policy poverty in the decision to cancel the allowances. https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/201610/293999.php?storyid=100&
On the other hand, the Nana Addo government has shown consistency in recruiting nurses and other health professions year on year to date. While allowances for trainees do delay, there has been consistency in the payment.
It will therefore be easy to suggest that John Mahama cannot be trusted by nursing trainees as his years of presidency gave nursing trainees a raw deal both in the lackadaisical attitude towards recruiting them after school and the inconsistencies surrounding the logics of cancelling allowances and ‘somewhat’ making an unprincipled u-turn.
For nursing trainees, a comparison of the NPP and NDC on their records of building and investing in hospital infrastructure (which will be their working place) and facilities, showing consistency to the welfare of students, expanding nursing training facilities, and the consistency in employing nurses will be cardinal in deciding who to vote for.
Anyone who objectively does an analysis on job creation, payment of allowances, expansion of health infrastructure and investment in health generally will come to this singular and firm conclusion that a Bawumia-led NPP government can be trusted to complete and continue the good legacy of Nana Addo in the health sector while creating his own legacy.
Source: www.kumasimail/ Dr. Keskine Owusu Poku
