The Ministry of Health has announced that the ongoing recruitment of 8,000 health workers will prioritise deprived and underserved districts across the country as part of efforts to strengthen primary healthcare delivery.

According to the ministry, the recruitment exercise is aimed at addressing staffing gaps in rural and underserved communities where access to healthcare services remains limited.

The ministry also revealed that more than 105,000 trained health professionals across the country are currently unemployed, with some waiting for recruitment since 2018 and 2019.

Addressing the media, the Human Resource Director at the Ministry of Health, Fred Acheampong, said the recruitment process is being guided by the government’s free primary healthcare policy.

“In April this year, the Minister of Health received financial clearance to recruit about 8,000 professionals from the Ministry of Finance,” he stated.

“The Ministry acknowledges the anxiety and interest this recruitment has generated, particularly given the background of over 105,000 unemployed health professionals.”

He explained that some of the affected professionals completed training years ago but have still not been recruited.

“Some have been waiting since the last recruitment in 2019, some since 2018, and particularly for nurses, the 2020 batches,” he said.

Mr Acheampong said that the recruitment exercise is heavily focused on improving healthcare delivery at the community level, especially in deprived areas.

“This recruitment exercise, I must say, is heavily guided by the objectives of the free primary healthcare policy, with emphasis on strengthening preventive care, community-based care, and primary healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved areas of the country,” he explained.

The ministry said districts with the biggest staffing shortages have been given higher allocations through a newly introduced decentralised recruitment portal.

According to Mr Acheampong, the decentralised system is expected to improve the distribution of health workers nationwide and reduce the growing number of transfer requests to major cities after postings are made.

He said the ministry is also working to secure additional financial clearance to recruit more health professionals in the future.

Meanwhile, the ministry has raised concerns over suspected recruitment fraud and illegal collections linked to the ongoing exercise.

Mr Acheampong disclosed that the ministry anticipated possible fraudulent activities because of the large number of unemployed health professionals seeking jobs.

“Considering the number of health professionals who are eligible to be employed and are at home, this was actually expected and was part of the ministry’s planning towards this process from the beginning.”

He revealed that the ministry had engaged security agencies before the recruitment process began and continues to work closely with them to investigate suspected fraud cases.

“We had meetings with the security agencies before the process actually started and collaborated with them throughout the process,” he stated.

“Through this collaboration and the support of the public, some suspect persons are being investigated by the security agencies.”

The Human Resource Director assured the public that the ministry would provide updates when investigations are completed.

“We will communicate to the public when new developments in this regard are received from the state agencies,” he added.