General secretary for the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) Dr David Tenkorang-Twum, has called on government to peg the market premium of nurses and midwives in the country to their current basic salary to avert attrition.

According to him, the attrition rate of nurses in the country is mainly attributed to economic factors. This, he indicated, must be resolved to avert further brain drain in the country.

Dr Tenkorang-Twum noted that per the current salaries of nurses and midwives, there’s no way Ghana can pay competitive salaries as being paid by countries nurses are migrating to.

“I’m saying that in 2013, the market premium of nurses and midwives were frozen. Previously, when we were placed on the single spine, we had a component called market premium. So, anytime the salaries went up, the market premium also inched up and that would help checkmate inflation and all that.

“Because it was frozen, the gains that we made had whittled. So, it has been revised for certain professional groups. What I think the government should do is to be able to raise the market premium just by pegging the market premium to the current basic salary which will be enough to stem the attrition.”
Dr David Tenkorang-Twum

Furthermore, Dr Tenkorang-Twum revealed that government needs to think outside the box as this is not the first time nurses are leaving the county in droves. With this, he questioned what government did to “checkmate” the previous exodus.

“That is what we should be looking at. No nurse is bonded. As I speak, 2015/2016, when the previous administration cancelled the allowances, the bonding ceased. So, no nurse is bonded. Unless those who took the bond prior to that; but by now, they’ve all finished serving their bond… What is important to me is to find a practical solution to the current exodus and I’m saying that it can be controlled.”
Dr David Tenkorang-Twum

The general secretary for GRNMA further iterated his stance that the “salaries are nothing to write home” about and indicated in time past that the nurses and midwives in the country, would want to stay to serve Ghanaians. However, he emphasized that what is paid to them is insufficient.

“I’m not saying they should increase the market premium. They should just tie it to the basic salary of the current salaries of nurses and midwives. They should just revise it from the 2012 basic salary, because the market premium is tied to the 2012 basic salary…”
Dr David Tenkorang-Twum

Reasons for attrition rate in health sector

Expounding on other reasons for the move of nurses to other countries, Dr Tenkorang-Twum, stated that a car waiver which hitherto existed, was scrapped by the previous administration. He explained that nurses, midwives and doctors, could previously apply for a car waiver to buy any car.

“… So, anything that works for nurses and midwives in Ghana, where virtually removed. So, these were things that are causing this.”
Dr David Tenkorang-Twum

Moreover, Dr Tenkorang-Twum highlighted that there’s lack of recognition for midwives and nurses in Ghana. With this, he revealed that when health unions in the country were negotiating for the single spine pay policy, they had not churned out specialist nurses and midwives yet, but negotiated for grades because the program was about to start.

However, he revealed that when the program got started, the unions negotiated for level of placements for these specialist nurses and midwives.

“… As I speak, I don’t know how they went about it without recourse to the unions who negotiated for this salary levels. They have downgraded the specialist nurses… So, these are some of the issues that are causing the problems we have on our hands. We have petitioned the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission,[and] we expect that as a matter of urgency, we are invited because we are not going to tolerate it. These are negotiated levels and the letter was duly written by the director general of Ghana Health Service with attached levels.”
Dr David Tenkorang-Twum