Guidelines for payment of newly qualified health workers ready
Guidelines meant to reduce the delay encountered in placing newly qualified health personnel on government payroll have been completed.
The 13-point guidelines, which are expected to ensure that newly placed health personnel are paid within three to four months of their placement, will be implemented by the ministries of Health and Finance and the Controller and Accountant -General’s Department (CAGD).
The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations set up a committee a few months ago to look at how health workers could be placed on the government payroll with minimum delay.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare-Bampoe, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said the guidelines prescribed the procedure to follow in the placement of medical officers on the mechanised payroll.
The completion of the guidelines comes after frustrated junior doctors in some public hospitals abandoned their posts on Monday, July 27, 2015 to picket on the premises of the CAGD to demand payment of their 11-month salary arrears.
Challenges
The issue of delay in the payment of health personnel, especially newly qualified doctors, after their housemanship, had become a thorny issue, as it takes months before their names appear on the payroll.
According to Dr Asare-Bampoe, the old system of enrolling health officers on the payroll was cumbersome, as it had to go through a chain of processes.
He said due to those processes, which did not have any definite timelines, there were potential delays.
He said what happened to the 91 doctors was the result of the long process involved in information gathering.
He explained that the government, after consultations with the ministries of Employment and Labour Relations and Health, had agreed to advance money to the CAGD to pay the doctors.
To that end, he said, the July salaries and 11-month arrears which had already been worked on for 64 of the doctors whose data had been rectified had been credited to their various institutions.
He said the salaries and arrears of another 17 of the doctors who also should have been paid their salaries for this month and the 11-month arrears in August had also been paid.
Another 10 of the doctors, who Dr Asare-Bampoe said did not have their full details on the payroll, had also been advanced their salaries and arrears, instead of initially August that was agreed upon.
He said the money had been made available to the institutions of the affected doctors whose salaries and arrears could not be paid through the payroll and, therefore, called on them to contact their various institutions for collection.
Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh