The government has sent a directive to all public nursing and midwifery schools to reduce their intake to only 60 percent of the schoolâs capacity.
A statement by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health stated that the directive should be followed strictly by all public nursing and midwifery schools as the academic year starts in September.
The spokesperson for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Nana Boateng Agyeman said that the decision to reduce intake is to improve the quality of nurses.
âWe want to produce [nurses] to meet demandâŠI wonât call it a cut-downâŠIt's about quality, we want to train health professionals who will give quality healthcare,â Mr. Agyeman told Accra-based Starr FM.
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Several nursing and midwifery groups have for some days now been picketing the Health Ministry to demand immediate postings.
And many believe that the decision to reduce intake of nurses now is to enable the government to fulfil its promise of restoring the nursesâ trainee allowance withdrawn by the previous NDC administration.
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But Mr. Agyeman said that: âAs far as the policy is concerned this is not connected to the restoring of the allowanceâŠwe are looking at quality.â