The General Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Dr David Tenkorang-Twum, has attributed the high rate of attrition in the country’s health sector to poor remuneration.

A report titled “African Youth Survey 2022” revealed that 44% of the youth in Africa migrate due to harsh economic factors facing them in their respective countries. Education follows closely with 41%.

The General Secretary said the data is not surprising because it is the reality.

Speaking about professional nurses leaving the country, he explained that by 2013 the market premium of nurses was frozen.

Prior to the removal, the market premium was tied to the basic salaries of nurses. This, he said helped “checkmate” inflation.

A market premium is an additional amount paid to employees with demanded skills that are in short supply.

He expressed that although the market premium of other professionals has been revised, that of the health workers has not seen any improvement.

Dr Koranteng-Twum has, therefore, advised that the market premium should be pegged to the basic salaries of nurses to curb the current attrition rate within the sector.

“Because it was frozen, the gains that we made had whittled. It has been revised for certain professional groups. I don’t like comparison.

"What I think the government should do is to be able to raise the market premium. Just by pegging the market premium to the current basic salaries will be enough to stem the attrition or the exodus.

“I’m not even saying to increase the market premium, I’m saying that they should just tie it to the basic salaries. It will certainly give a certain respite to the nurses and midwives and they will be prepared to stay,” he said on JoyNews’ AM show on Monday.

Experts are predicting a worrying future for Ghana in the wake of a high rate of migration of professional medical practitioners.

Nurses and doctors have become bent on leaving the country for developed countries for better working conditions.

Data by the World Bank has revealed that Ghana currently has a nurse-to-patient ratio of 4:1000, indicating 4 nurses to 1000 patients following the recent migration of health workers.

Ghana is now also ranked among some 55 countries facing “a serious shortage of health workers,” according to the World Health Organisation (WH0).

Recently, government signed a deal with the UK government relating to health workers.

The deal is such that Ghana will receive an amount of money for providing the UK with qualified nurses.

But health experts both in Ghana and in the UK have expressed worry about the deal.

The concern is that Ghana as a developing country needs its health workers more. Nonetheless, in 2022, more than 1,200 Ghanaian nurses joined the UK’s nursing register.

The general secretary has also noted that one of the factors demotivating health workers to work in the country is the lack of recognition for them.

He explained that having previously negotiated with authorities concerning payment ranges for the different categories of health workers such as midwife specialists, senior specialist nurse midwives and the consultant nurse midwife specialist, the ranges have been reduced without consulting the health unions.

According to him, his outfit including others has petitioned the Fair Wages and Salary Commission to help resolve their concern.

Meanwhile, authorities are also calling for replacement mechanisms to help solve challenges that may arise due to the high level of attrition in the health sectors.

“We are having a lot of professional nurses leaving the country for Europe and other parts of the world. They are taking mainly the professional nurses and so, there is the need to beef up professional nurses across the country,” the Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye said.