The government is set to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the United States and the United Kingdom to facilitate the structured deployment of Ghanaian health professionals abroad, Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has announced.
The minister disclosed this during the matriculation of 145 post-basic specialised nursing students at the Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery Training College (NMTC) and the ENT Nursing School in Kumasi under the Mahama Care initiative.
The students are pursuing four new post-basic specialisations: cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology and oncology. The intake comprises 99 students at Kumasi NMTC and 46 at the ENT Nursing School.
Akandoh said the planned agreements with the US and UK build on an existing arrangement with Jamaica, under which batches of Ghanaian health professionals have already been deployed.
He explained that the structured migration programme is designed to generate economic benefits through remittances while ensuring Ghana maintains adequate healthcare personnel.
The minister stressed that highly specialised health professionals would not be allowed to leave where the country faces critical shortages, adding that safeguards would be put in place to protect essential services.
He said the government is also expanding specialist training to meet both local healthcare needs and growing international demand.
As part of ongoing reforms, the ministry has introduced a competency-based curriculum for nursing education and is upgrading several institutions to offer post-basic programmes.
The institutions include Kumasi NMTC, Korle-Bu NMTC, the ENT Nursing School in Kumasi, Tamale NMTC, and the Critical Care and Perioperative School at Korle-Bu.
Following pilot specialist training programmes at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Tamale, the ministry has enrolled 500 nurses this year and plans to increase the annual intake to at least 1,000 over the next three years.
