The General Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Dr David Tenkorang-Twum, has backed government’s decision to reduce the number of nurses and midwives being trained, describing the move as long overdue.

His comments follow government’s decision to reduce admissions into nursing and midwifery training institutions amid concerns that the country is producing more health professionals than the health sector can absorb.

According to him, Ghana has, for years, been training nurses and midwives without sufficient consideration of the health sector’s capacity to absorb them.

“I agree perfectly with the decision to cut back on training of nurses and midwives in Ghana. This is long overdue,” he said in an interview on Joy FM’s Newsnight on Thursday, October 8.

Dr Tenkorang-Twum said the decision should be based on the need to ensure that trainees acquire the skills and competencies required to meet Ghana’s healthcare needs.

He argued that nursing is a skill-based profession that requires adequate resources and qualified instructors to train students effectively.

“Nursing is a skill acquisition programme, and I wonder why anybody can think that even a school like the Nyarko Medical Training College that the minister mentioned can train even 750 nurses a year,” he said.

He compared the situation to the University of Ghana, where he said more than 35 PhD holders teach, but the university admits fewer than 200 students annually in his programme.

He called for the capacity and qualifications of lecturers at nursing training institutions to be carefully assessed before determining how many students they should admit.

Dr Tenkorang-Twum said the Nursing and Midwifery Council's decision to allocate quotas to nursing training colleges is therefore appropriate.

“We need to train people so that they can obtain the necessary skills and competencies to challenge the health needs of Ghana,” he said.

He added that he supports the government’s position despite political disagreements over the policy, stressing that the focus should be on ensuring high-quality training and aligning the number of trainees with the country’s healthcare needs.