Nursing, Midwifery Council suspends new foreign verification, other fees
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has suspended newly approved fees that took effect from March 1, this year.
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The fees included foreign verification, which increased from GH¢550 to GH¢3,000.
Governing Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Council took a decision to halt the implementation of the newly approved fees and charges at its meeting last Tuesday pending its review.
“This decision follows discussions with relevant stakeholders, regarding their concerns. In the meantime, the Council will revert to the previous fee structure,” the Governing Board said in a statement shortly after the meeting.
The council said it remained dedicated to upholding the highest standards of training and practice of Nursing and Midwifery for the benefit of the public.
Daily Graphic checks indicate that the council has not revised its fees and charges for so many years.
Having raised the fees, particularly that of verification, it, however, had to suspend them because of backlash from some members, the National Council of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) who expressed concern about the sudden astronomical increase.
Strike cancelled
Subsequently, GRNMA has called off a series of intended actions in protest over the increment of the nursing foreign verification fee from GH¢550 to GH¢3,000.
The President of the GRNMA, Perpetual Ofori Ampofo, said at a news conference in Accra today (March 27) that after a successful discussion with the Ministry of Health and the Governing Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, there was the need to address the issue for the benefit of all parties.
She assured members of the GRNMA leadership’s commitment to engage with the relevant parties to ensure that any new verification was fair and acceptable to all.
Background
The leadership of the GRNMA had outlined a series of protests to voice their objection to the new fees.
This was after Parliament announced a significant increase in the cost of foreign verification from GH¢550 to GH¢3,000, representing a 445.45 per cent rise.
From March 22, departments and wards where nurses and midwives operated throughout the country were expected to be adorned with red bands as symbol of protest.
The plans for protests included a withdrawal of services from outpatient departments of health facilities nationwide from March 28 to April 2, 2024.
Clearance
Ms Ampofo called on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to abolish the directive on the sale of clearance forms to only nurses and midwives.
She described the situation as a discriminatory policy against nurses and midwives as being the only cadre of health professionals who were to pay for clearance forms to initiate the process for the verification of licences.
The association further called on the Ministry of Finance to issue the needed financial clearance for the employment of the thousands of nurses and midwives at home.
Ms. Ampofo said this would ensure that nurses and midwives, currently, at home did not waste away their skills with each passing day.
“We want to use this opportunity to inform nurses and midwives that the negotiation on our conditions of service is ongoing, and that we will continue to represent our collective interest in that regard,” the President of the GRNMA said.
