Awal Mohammed said this programme is not new.
He indicated that it has been in existence since 2006 but was halted in 2018.
The SHS graduates, he explained, are given a three-week training to equip them for the assignment.
“This is not a novelty and so I am surprised this is becoming an issue at this time. It is not a new module that we are bringing on board, it started in 2006, you remember some used to be called Kufuor nurses or Zoom nurses.,” Awal said on the Ghana Tonight show with Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Monday August 22.
The General Secretary of the GRNMA David Tenkorang also told Alfred Ocansey on the same show that the decision was not right.
He stated that at the moment, there are over 20,000 unposted nurses available who are ready to work. Therefore, he said, the association will not support the initiative by the government.
“The programme is not well thought through, it will drain the economy. How can you allow half baked people to work and you are thinking of productivity?” he said.
In an earlier statement the GRNMA issued on Monday, 22 August 2022 the association noted that: “Indeed the work in these rural communities can be quite daunting for CHNs to the extent that they can hardly have time to attend to their personal and career development issues. They therefore require assistance but not from Senior High School (SHS) graduates.”
“Nurse Assistant (Preventive) who are also appointed as CHNs. In total there is a backlog of over 20,000 nurses and midwives of all cadres belonging to 2019, 2020, 2021 batches also awaiting employment,” it added.
The statement further said the decision is “disturbing and a clear displacement of Ghana’s priority to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 3(SDG 3) and Universal Health Coverage by 2030.”