The students, who had served the mandatory national service, described the treatment meted out to them as discriminatory since they had been thoroughly trained and licensed as nursing officers.

“We would like to bring to the notice of all well-meaning Ghanaians the discrimination and heartless treatment meted out to us by stakeholders responsible for our recruitment and postings to the various health facilities,” they stated.

The students, clad in their white attires with red bands around their necks and arms, carried placards, some of which read “Equal rights for every nursing officer,” “Job for all not for some,” “NDC never discriminated. Why NPP?” “Give us clearance to work for mother Ghana,” and “Our parents also pay taxes. We are Ghanaians.”

Appalling discrimination

The President of the Coalition of Unemployed Private Graduate Nurses, Mr Emmanuel T. M. Twumasi, said over the years, clearance from the Ministry of Finance for the employment of graduate nurses included nurses from both public and private institutions.

For example, he said the March 2017 clearance for the recruitment of nursing officers was a clear example of employment of graduate nurses from both public and private institutions.

“The graduate nurses are all one, and we all fought for this current July clearance but in an absolutely bizarre manner, the authorities concerned have deliberately discriminated against us without any apparent reasons.”

“It is appalling that in the July postings, the convention of first come, first served was blatantly thrown to the dogs. By this, our juniors who graduated from public universities have been cleared and posted while nursing officers who graduated before them from private universities have been ignored,” he stated.

False assurances

Mr Twumasi said when this was brought to the attention of the coalition leadership, they engaged the MoH in a dialogue to correct the discrimination and unfair treatment.

To that effect, he stated that the association did a recompilation and submission of a complete list of all its members who were duly qualified to be posted per the March 2017 clearance as demanded by the Ministry of Health.

He, therefore, called on the government to take immediate steps to correct the discriminatory and unfair treatment against members of the association.

Recruitment not obligatory

Responding to the protests of the aggrieved nurses, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Health, Mr Robert Cudjoe, said the Ministry of Health always sent separate lists containing the names of graduate nurses from both public and private universities to the Ministry of Finance but “unfortunately when the postings started this year, the names of private nurses were not part”.

Denying the accusation that the Ministry of Health deliberately omitted their names from the list sent to the Ministry of Finance, the PRO said it was not obligatory for the government to employ graduate nurses of both public and private universities when they completed their courses.