The International Council of Nurses (ICN), one of the largest nursing groups in the world, has warned that the rate at which Ghanaian nurses are moving out of Ghana to the UK and the US spells doom for Ghana’s health system.
Chief executive officer of ICN Howard Catton has told the BBC that number Ghanaian patients could begin paying the big price for the mass exodus of local nurses to the West for better pay and opportunities.UK has said it is not actively recruiting in Ghana, however, social media now enables nurses to easily see the vacancies available in NHS trusts and apply for jobs.
He told the BBC there is usually intense recruitment by at least six high-income Western countries from countries like Ghana and other African countries.
Catton said countries like Ghana and others on the continent are already weak, vulnerable and can ill-afford to lose their nurses.
For a long time, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has increasingly been relying on staff from non-EU countries to fill vacancies.
For Ghana, the situation is taking a heavy toll on the health system.
Every year, many specialist nurses leave Ghana for better-paid jobs overseas. A House of Commons report has found more than 3,000 health professionals left Ghana for the UK in each of the three years to 2021.
According to the BBC, in 2022, 1,200 nurses left Ghana to the UK for better working conditions.
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These concerns by the ICN notwithstanding, health minister Kweku Agyeman-Manu announced in December 2022 that Ghana plans to send registered nurses to the United Kingdom for cash.
The minister told Parliament on December 5, 2022, that Ghana could make £1,000 for each nurse sent to the UK.
He disclosed that there are ongoing bilateral talks between Ghana and UK to introduce a similar deal already in existence between Ghana and Barbados.