About 130 nurses are leaving Accra for Saint John’s to serve in various health facilities in Antigua and Barbuda.
The nurses have been trained in the area of midwifery, mental health and general health.
The move is under the Ghana Labour Exchange Programme of the current administration.
“Ghana Labour Exchange Programme is one of the interventions by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, to create more jobs for the good people of this country,” Minister of Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said on Monday, January 26.
He explained that the Mahama-led administration inherited a backlog of 80,000 health professionals without jobs.
The Sefwi Juaboso Member of Parliament charged the departing nurses to lift the flag of Ghana high by serving as good ambassadors.
“Today, we are here to say goodbye to you but we will be following your progress with keen interest and as you are going you must be minded by the fact that you are carrying the flag of Ghana. Therefore, we wish that you go and work with diligence and professionalism.”
He assured that more arrangements are being made to get more health professionals sent to other countries including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad.
“Those of you who are at home watching us, I am very hopeful that it will get to your turn.”
He said Ghana’s challenge has not been lack of health professionals but the wherewithal to employ them.
“The availability of health professionals in this country is not the problem. As already indicated, we have excess, about 80,000 health professionals, but as you all know, we have a country to govern and at every point in time, our budget can absorb a certain proportion of it.
“So as government is looking at absorbing some internally in-country in our various health facilities, we are also exploring other avenues outside the country.
He was joined by the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to see the nurses off.