They include 5,400 nursing assistants, 1,500 emergency medical technicians (EMT), 114 nurses and midwives and 505 allied health professionals.

A letter signed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper and addressed to the Minister of Health directed the ministry to ensure that the relevant staff have their documents processed in time and placed on the mechanised payroll early enough to enable the Controller and Accountant General’s Department effect payment of their salaries.

It also directed the Ministry to inform all human resource managers at the various facilities across the country to process the documents of all staff who have been granted financial clearance on time to avoid an accumulation of salary arears, adding that, “the Ministry of Finance will not be responsible for the payment of any unwarranted salary arrears from any facility.”

The Finance Ministry however noted that “the above number of 8,634 should be deducted from their [Health Ministry’s] 2017 quota for recruitment and replacement.”

“By a copy of this letter, the Controller and Accountant General is requested to effect the payment of their salaries and make appropriate deductions of Social Security and income Tax to SSNIT and the Domestic Tax Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) effectively,” the letter added.