THE Public Services International (PSI) Sub-regional Secretary for English-speaking East and West Africa, Madam Khadija Mohammed, has cautioned Ghanaian nurses against travelling abroad to seek greener pastures because it was not all that rosy in such countries.
She also asked them to take into consideration the welfare of their nuclear families, especially the children that they would leave behind, denying them of the needed parental care they need to grow up into useful citizens.
Madam Khadija Mohammed gave the caution at the launch of an information kit on the migration of women health workers at Koforidua.
The six-page document, which was jointly developed by the Health Services Workers Union (HSWU) of the TUC and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) in August last year, contains addresses of Ghana’s missions abroad and all the necessary information on the recruitment of health workers, especially nurses.
According to Madam Mohammed, although it was not wrong for Ghanaian health workers, especially nurses to travel outside to work and gain international exposure in order to perform better, the best thing for them to do was to return home after a few years’ stay to render services to Ghanaians.
She said although some of the migrant nurses had it easy getting jobs, others had to go through a lot of difficulties and so it was better for them to stay at home and support the trade union to improve their lot and improve healthcare service delivery in the country.
“Although some of the nurses practising in foreign countries succeed financially, their children normally grow up to be miscreants and liabilities to society”, she said.
The Project Officer of the Department of Union Development and International Solidarity, Madam Jennifer Lack, gave a harrowing account of the difficulties migrant health workers without the necessary travelling and working documents went through in African countries and advised Ghanaian health workers who intended going to such countries to be well prepared.
The Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Dr Anthony Baah, who launched the information kit, appealed to nurses and other health workers to support the union to fight for their rights to improve their lot instead of travelling abroad to seek greener pastures.
He appealed to nurses to be prepared to render their services in the rural areas where they were mostly needed.
The National Chairman of the Health Services Workers’ Union of the TUC, Reverend Richard Kwasi Yeboah, said a study conducted by the Nurses and Midwives Council from 2002 to 2005 revealed that nurses and midwives migrated to developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States due to poor salaries and working conditions at home, inadequate basic working materials and equipment, as well as lack of prospects for further professional development.
He said it was in that direction that the union had taken steps to address the issue and at the same time lobby the government and employers to sign far-reaching compensation agreements with employers of the receiving countries for the health human resource they poached.
Rev. Yeboah, who gave detailed account of what the union was doing to address the issue, stated that the rate at which nurses and other health professionals migrated to foreign countries had reduced due to improvement in their salary levels. Also some of them had been provided with private cars.
He expressed the hope that the necessary agreements would be reached between the Government and the receiving countries to enable Ghana to benefit from the labour of its working citizens abroad.
Earlier in his welcoming address, the General Secretary of the PSWU of the TUC, Mr Abu Kuntulo, called for a joint action to address the issue.
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