Some stakeholders in the Health sector want the government to stop the payment of trainee Nurses allowances on a wholesale basis.
According to them, the payments should be made to nurses who are willing to go into critical areas of need such as midwifery and anesthesia.
This follows a research which shows that almost 70 percent of the country’s health budget goes into the payment of remunerations of health workers, leaving a little over 30 percent for infrastructure development and the provision of critical tools and equipment in health facilities.
These came to light at a stakeholder workshop to mark Universal Health Coverage Day.
The research conducted by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights, ARHR, showed that most health facilities particularly CHPS compounds have far more than the required nurses.
In some cases, one CHPS compound had as much as 15 community nurses who in most cases are not allowed to provide critical services like midwifery.
According to the stakeholders at the workshop, these community nurses have become a burden on the budget as the government continues to pay trainee allowances to them. Nii Ankonu Annorbah Sarpei is the Director of programs with, ARHR.
The research recommended that trainee allowances should rather be paid to nursing students who are willing to study in critical areas such as psychiatry, anaesthesia and midwifery.
Participants at the workshop agreed with the recommendations and called on the government to increase budgetary allocations for services and infrastructural development in health facilities.
