The Nurses and Midwife Trainees’ Association (GNMTA) has hailed government’s decision to restore allowances for trainee nurses nationwide.
President Mahama on Tuesday, October 5, reiterated government’s decision to restore the allowances of nursing trainees during his campaign tour in the Brong Ahafo region.
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“The committee recommended that since we are yet to amend the law to put our nursing and midwifery students on the student's loan scheme, we should also put them on the allowance,” he said
The NDC government scrapped the allowances to remove the restrictions on admission to the various training institutions. This was in order to give more students the opportunity to gain admissions into the various training institutions in the country.
The decision has since been criticised by stakeholders and especially from the affected students who rely on the allowance for their upkeep. Government, however, introduced what it termed as monthly abated allowance of GHC 150 in July 2016 claiming that would cushion the students.
Speaking to Accra-based 3 FM, spokesperson of the association Godwin Akadz said “We heard the pronouncement made by the President and we are all happy about it but our reservation is about the bureaucratic system in the country. As we speak now…documents to authenticate the process and how much we would be paid and when the payment will begin, we don’t know.”
Mr Akadzi stated that while the GNMTA is happy and appreciates the promise by President Mahama, it is important that he “task the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health to task all the health training institutions to begin the processes for the allowances to be paid.’’
He added: “unfortunate to say what he’s saying is not true but what we are considering is the bureaucracies involved but if he says so we hope what happened in 2012 will not repeat’’.