The Ghana National Service Scheme (GNSS) has deployed a total of 1,873 qualified nurses and midwives to undertake their national service for the year 2012-2013 service period in 165 health facilities across the country.
The deployment was as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the GNSS and the Ministry of Health (MOH) with its allied regulatory bodies on May 09, 2011.
The MoU is also to help augment greatly the availability of health personnel in rural communities, statement signed by the Executive Director of GNSS, Mr Vincent Kuagbenu to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday stated.
The statement directed that nurses and midwives were to commence their service on January 1, 2013, following the successful completion of their professional examination.
The deployment statistics indicates that a total of 1, 175 registered General Nurses were posted across the country; 316 to the Ashanti Region, 155 to the Brong Ahafo Region, and 90 to the Central Region.
The rest were 105 to the Eastern Region, 185 to the Greater Accra Region, 71 to Volta Region, 67 to Western Region, 74 to the Northern Region, 84 to the Upper East region and 26 to the Upper West Region.
A total of 505 registered midwives were deployed comprising of 181 for the Ashanti Region, 36 for Brong Ahafo Region, 28 for Central Region, 55 for Eastern Region and 63, 17 and 7 for the Greater Accra, Northern and Upper East Regions respectively. The Upper West had 18, Volta 53 and Western Region 47.
The GNSS statement indicates that out of the 159 registered Mental Health Nurses posted, the Ashanti Region received 16, the Brong Ahafo 11, Central Region 41, and Eastern Region 59.
The Greater Accra, Northern and Western Regions received 27, 4 and 1 respectively.
It added that 30 registered community nurses were also deployed to the Eastern Region while four were deployed to the Central Region.
The GNSS direct all national service personnel classified to visit its website: www.nssghana.org to access their posting letters.
The statement also directed the service personnel that after accessing the appointment letters they must proceed to the regional offices of the Scheme to complete the registration procedure before reporting at various places of posting.
The statement commended the MOH, the Nurses and Midwives Council and the Nurses Training Colleges for the smooth implementation of the MoU, adding that the deployment was in line with the Section 3 (1)(d) of the GNSS Act, Act 426.
It also entreated past service personnel, who did their service in the 2011-2012 service year to visit the regional offices of where they did their service to collect their certificates.