Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Ghana (Ratification: 1986)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its reports. It asks the Government to provide further particulars on the following points.

Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2(b), of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest the measures taken by the Government to train nursing personnel at higher levels of education, including university, and asks it to continue to provide information in this regard. It also notes the information that graduates are more attracted to work in the private sector or abroad than in the public sector and that the Government’s response has been to initiate an incentives scheme called "Additional duty hours allowance" designed to motivate nurses in the public sector. The Committee asks the Government to provide particulars of the content of this incentive scheme.

Article 2, paragraph 4. The Committee notes that, following the structural reform of the health service, nursing care services are coordinated with other aspects of health care and other workers in the field of health. It also notes the information that consultations in this respect were carried out with the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned. The Committee asks the Government to provide further information on the arrangements for the abovementioned coordination and the procedures and framework in which the consultations provided for by this Article of the Convention are conducted.

Article 7. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government concerning the code of practice regulating protection against ionizing radiations, and asks the Government to provide a copy of it. In its previous direct request, the Committee noted that new measures were still envisaged, in the context of negotiations for a collective agreement, to improve occupational safety and health of nursing personnel. The Committee therefore asks the Government to provide information on developments in this area. With regard to measures designed to take account of the particular risk for nursing personnel of accidental exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the Committee notes the draft Labour Code, currently before Parliament, provides for special protection of nursing personnel against HIV infection. The Committee asks the Government to provide the International Labour Office with a copy of the new Code as soon as it has been adopted. The Government is also asked to indicate whether the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned have been consulted, in accordance with this provision of the Convention.

Part V of the report form. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, together with statistics on the strength of nursing personnel. It also asks the Government to provide a copy of all relevant documents not yet sent, such as laws, regulations, collective agreements or reports of the Nurses and Midwives Council, etc.