Ghana must match health investments with specialist nursing workforce — Health Minister

The Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has called for closer alignment between specialist nursing and midwifery training, workforce deployment and Ghana’s changing healthcare needs, stressing that investments in infrastructure, technology and health financing can only deliver results when supported by a competent workforce.

He said the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, demand for specialised and long-term care, emerging infectious threats and rapid advances in medical technology required Ghana to move beyond simply increasing the number of nurses and midwives trained.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister at the opening of the 11th Annual General Meeting and 6th Seminar of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives at the Pentecost Convention Centre, Gomoa Fetteh, on Tuesday, Dr Ignatius Abowini Nchor Awinibuno, Director of Allied Health, said Ghana must prioritise the training of specialist professionals, ensure their appropriate deployment, and provide the necessary working conditions for them to effectively apply their expertise.

The event was held on the theme: “Building a Resilient Specialist Nursing and Midwifery Workforce to Improve Health Outcomes.”

Mr Akandoh said specialist expertise was increasingly critical in areas such as emergency and critical care, oncology, renal care, mental health, neonatal care and maternal and newborn health.

He noted that Ghana’s emerging health architecture, comprising Free Primary Healthcare, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, popularly known as Mahama Cares, was creating a continuum of care that connected early detection and treatment at the community level with district and specialised services.

He, however, cautioned that expanding access to specialised treatment must go hand in hand with developing the human resources capable of delivering such care.

“Equipment, financing and specialist medical care achieve their full value when supported by skilled nurses and midwives who can monitor patients, recognise complications, coordinate care and support families through recovery,” he said.

The Minister said workforce planning must also address the geographical distribution of specialist professionals to reduce the extent to which access to specialised healthcare depended on a patient’s ability to travel to major cities.

He called for stronger collaboration among the Ministry of Health, health service agencies, the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, training institutions and health facilities to ensure that disease patterns, staffing gaps and service needs informed specialist training priorities.

The Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr Eva Mensah, also emphasised the need to redefine resilience, saying it should not mean expecting health workers to endure difficult conditions indefinitely.

A resilient workforce, she noted, required the right numbers, competencies, leadership, systems and institutional support to provide safe and effective care during both routine periods and emergencies.

She further called for staffing norms to include specialist nurses and midwives, noting that existing health-sector staffing norms did not adequately provide for specialist nursing and midwifery requirements.

The Director also stressed the need to retain trained specialists and ensure that specialist qualifications translated into appropriate placement, scope of practice and career progression.

As part of efforts to strengthen specialist training, she highlighted an agreement reached in May 2026 between the Ghana Medical Trust Fund and the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives to support the expansion of specialist nursing training, including the training of 500 nurses. She described the initiative as a recognition of human capital as an essential component of health infrastructure.

Prof. Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo, the Chairperson for the event, said the ultimate measure of specialist training should not be the number of professionals produced, but the difference they made in patient care and health-system performance.

He called for stronger investment in postgraduate education, continuous professional development, clinical mentorship, research, digital competencies and leadership development, stressing that professional resilience could not be separated from institutional resilience.

Prof. Anarfo also urged the College and its partners to strengthen efforts to retain skilled professionals, arguing that the departure of trained specialists represented not only a loss of personnel but also institutional knowledge, mentoring capacity and future leadership.

He said the College would increasingly have to measure its contribution through improvements in quality and safety of care, patient experience, maternal and newborn outcomes, management of chronic diseases and reduction in preventable complications.

The speakers agreed that the future of Ghana’s health system would depend on a deliberate effort to connect specialist education with national health priorities and translate professional training into measurable improvements in patient outcomes.

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