245 Jobless Doctors Smile At Last Following Clearance By Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance has finally cleared some 245 doctors after six months of being unemployed.

Earlier this week, the commitment of the government to absorbing these doctors, and healthcare in general, was questioned when one of the doctors wrote to Citi FM conveying the frustration of the jobless doctors who appear ready to serve the country.

The concerns of the medical doctors and the delays in financial clearance for these doctors and many other public sector workers, was also widely discussed on Ghana’s award-winning morning show, the Citi CBS.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Dr. John-Diego Kosoe confirmed that the doctors were informed on Thursday evening “by way of a text message that we had got the finance clears for 245 medical officers who had been home for the past five to six months after the housemanship.”

“I personally went to the Ministry [of Finance] today [Friday] and true to it, we've got the clearance. I saw the letter and the list to that effect,” he said.

In a heartfelt petition to Citi News to highlight their plight, a doctor, Dr. Kosoe, lamented the dire situation of his colleagues, some of whom have left Ghana for greener pastures.

The doctors had said all efforts to secure financial clearance for their absorption have proven futile, while Ghana deals with a doctor deficit, which ultimately threatens healthcare in the country.

Dr. John-Diego Kosoe’s most recent follow up to the Ministry of Health was on October 9, 2017.

After the letter, the Health Ministry, in an interview with Citi News, pleaded with the unemployed doctors waiting for financial clearance for posting, to consider the country's financial constraints and wait a little while longer.

The Ministry's Public Relations Officer, Robert Cujdoe, explained that their delay in posting was because financial clearance had not yet been given for the doctors.

Challenges with financial clearance
The issue of financial clearance for public sector workers cut across various aspects of health care, with nurses and midwives, among others in the past, complaining about their unemployed status.

Education has also been affected, with primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders known to make appeals to government for clearance and posting of additional workers.

Like the health sector, there is also a deficit of teachers and other staff, with an institution like the Ghana Institute of Journalism, recently appealing to the Ministry of Finance to grant the institute the financial clearance to replace staff, following approval by the Public Services Commission (PSC) in January this 2017.

The GJA said its current total staff strength stands at 80 for a school faculty size of 24.

The need for validation and clearance noted as a measure to overcome the prevalence of ghost names, and their resulting corruption and revenue leaks.

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By: Godwin Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana