Ministry of Health has revealed that the massive Recruitment of Health Professionals that it undertook recently was fairly distributed to regions and districts based on Health needs and high staffing gaps within the aforementioned areas.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Monday (May 18, 2026), the Director of Human Resource at the MoH, Mr. Frederick Mensah Acheampong explained that all regions received allocations, but not all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies were considered adding that in the Greater Accra Region for instance, Ada West District, Ada East District, and Ningo/Prampram Municipality were prioritized for this recruitment process.
“In the interest of transparency, regional allocations were based on staffing norms and annual human resource requirements submitted by the Agencies.
Consequently, regions and districts with greater staffing gaps and healthcare needs and professions with a high impact on the success of the FPHC policy received higher allocations”, Mr. Acheampong emphasized.
The Director Human Resource further emphasized that this recruitment exercise is heavily guided by the objectives of the Free Primary Healthcare (FPHC) Policy, with emphasis on strengthening preventive, community-based, and primary healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved areas of the country.
He added these objectives, guided by the human resource policies and operational documents of the Ministry and its Agencies, such as the GHS, CHAG, AHMADIYYA HEALTH SERVICES and MENTAL HEALTH AUTHORITY, were used to determine the allocations by professions and by locations
The 2026 health professionals recruitment portal of the MoH has received backlash following claims of frustration that the system continually displayed “no slots available” further deepening unemployment anxieties.
But the Ministry has clarified that, aside hackers trying to hack the system, all allocations were fairly distributed acknowledging the anxiety and interest this recruitment exercise generated, particularly given the backlog of over 105,000 unemployed health professionals
Below is the full statement
UPDATE ON MINISTRY OF HEALTH RECRUITMENT PROCESS BY THE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCE FOR HEALTH DEVELOPMENT, FREDERICK MENSAH ACHEAMPONG ON 18TH MAY, 2026, 11:00AM AT THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH CONFERENCE ROOM
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media, distinguished guests, colleagues.
On behalf of the Hon. Minister, I warmly welcome you all to this press conference and thank you for honouring our invitation. Today’s engagement is aimed at providing clarity, updates, and important information on matters concerning our recent recruitment.
We appreciate the critical role the media plays in informing the public and ensuring transparency and accountability in governance. It is therefore important that we continue to engage openly and constructively on issues of national interest.
This press conference will address key developments, ongoing interventions in the recruitment regime of the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health wishes to update the general public on the ongoing recruitment process of health professionals across the country.
In April this year, the Ministry of Health received financial clearance to recruit about 8,000 health professionals. The Ministry acknowledges the anxiety and interest this recruitment exercise has generated, particularly given the backlog of over 105,000 unemployed health professionals.
This recruitment exercise is heavily guided by the objectives of the Free Primary Healthcare (FPHC) Policy, with emphasis on strengthening preventive, community-based, and primary healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved areas of the country.
These objectives, guided by the human resource policies and operational documents of the Ministry and its Agencies, such as the GHS, CHAG, AHMADIYYA HEALTH SERVICES and MENTAL HEALTH AUTHORITY, were used to determine the allocations by professions and by locations.
In the interest of transparency, regional allocations were based on staffing norms and annual human resource requirements submitted by the Agencies.
Consequently, regions and districts with greater staffing gaps and healthcare needs and professions with a high impact on the success of the FPHC policy received higher allocations.
All regions received allocations, but not all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies were considered. For instance, in the Greater Accra Region, Ada West District, Ada East District, and Ningo/Prampram Municipality were prioritised for this recruitment process.
Based on submissions from the relevant Agencies, most professional groups were considered; however, those with a higher impact on the success of the FPHC policy received higher allocations. For instance, Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP) and Registered Public Health Nurse (RPHN) were prioritised in the nursing category, receiving over 40% of the 6,500 allocated.
To further enhance transparency in our recruitment process, address imbalances in the distribution of health professionals, and support direct district-level recruitment, the Ministry introduced a new recruitment portal. Feedback on the system has been taken into account and will be used to improve user experience in future.
The Recruitment Portal
This platform successfully ingested a substantial baseline of records across all major professional groupings.
Uploads:
• The Total System Records Uploaded is approximately 53,440, with the following Professional Groupings;
Allied Health Professionals: 30,226(2019-2024)
Nurses and Midwives: 16,860 (2021 Only)
Physician Assistants: 4,631 (2018-2024)
Pharmacists: 2,975(2019-2024)
Pharmacy Technicians: 1,778(2019-2024)
CRA: 5 (foreign Trained)
Profile Completion Gap: 29,893 total accounts were initiated, with 2,636 without profile creation.
Active Accounts Created (By Top Cadres): The top cadres with active accounts created include the following;
Registered General Nurse (RGN): 4,158
Registered Midwifery (RM): 3,503
Nurse Assistant Clinical (NAC):1,329
Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP): 2,724
Registered Public Health Nurse (RPHN): 960
Nurse Officer (NO): 804
Medical Lab Sciences (MLS): 2,058
Medical Lab Technician (MLT): 1,546
Physician Assistant (PA): 901
Pharmacy Technician (PT): 720
Nutritionist / Nutritionist Technician: 1,217
Velocity
• High-Velocity regions with submissions in the First 5 Minutes include;
Greater Accra and Eastern Region: 217 applications within 5 minutes
Ashanti Region and Bono Region: 153 applications within 5 minutes
Central and Western Region: 123 applications within 5 minutes
Key Trends and Demographics:
The Top Applicant Group: The Registered General Nurses group represented the highest number of applicants nationwide. Recording 4,158 applications
Highest Localised Demand: For the first time, a district in the northern part of the country, West Mamprusi, recorded the highest total number of successful applications, with over 90 successful applications.
Unfilled Quotas: Registered Public Health Nurse group finished their recruitment windows with a leftover of over 80 slots.
Additionally, all Northern Regions retained open, unfilled slots at the close of the recruitment period.
Allocation Density: The Upper East, Upper West, and Savannah regions were allocated the highest number of employment openings.
Summary Applications:
The total successful applications at the end of the main application process comprise the following;
- Nurses and Midwives: A total of 6,245 applications have been successfully submitted out of the 6,500. The remaining is allocated to some critical areas of the Teaching Hospitals and specialised service delivery agencies, such as the Psychiatry Hospitals
- Allied Health Professionals: A total of 771 applications have been successfully submitted out of the 900. The remaining is allocated to some critical areas of the Teaching Hospitals and specialised service delivery agencies, such as the Psychiatry Hospitals
- Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technicians: 235 successfully submitted out of the 250, with the remaining allocated to some Teaching Hospitals and specialised institutions, such as the FDA and Pharmacy Council.
- Physician Assistants & CRA: Vacancies for Physician Assistants are all exhausted. 5 Vacancies still available for CRAs
Available Vacancies:
We still have over 87 Slots available on the portal, mainly Registered Public Health Nurses and Mental Health Nurses, with 5 CRAs. These vacancies are mainly scattered within the northern districts of the country.
We are working with the Ghana Health Service and CHAG to re-allocate those slots to other cadres while maintaining the original allocated districts.
Mop-Up Exercise
The portal will be open in the coming weeks for a mop-up exercise to clear the remaining slots. The allocations to critical areas of the Teaching Hospitals and other specialised institutions, such as the Psychiatry Hospitals, will also be considered as part of the mop-up exercise.
Issue of Fraud and Illegal Collection
Considering the number of health professional who are illegible to be employed and at home, this was expected and was part of the Ministry planning towards this process from the beginning. We had meetings with the security agencies before the process started and collaborated with them throughout the process. Through this collaboration, and the support of the public some unscrupulous persons are being investigated by the security agencies. We will communicate to the public when new developments in this regard are received from the state agencies. We also cautioned the leadership of the professional groups to warn their members not to avail themselves to these corrupt individuals and once again I would like to reiterate that call.
Interview and Placements
After the Mop-up exercise, the attention will be shifted to the Agencies, Regions and the Districts. The successful applicants will be invited by their respective districts for an interview, where their certificates and other important professional documents will be assessed. Basically, the interview seeks to confirm the documentation of the professionals and their readiness to start working.
Professionals will be onboarded to start work from 1st July, 2026.
Additional Financial Clearance
As the Minister, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has expressly stated, we expect to receive further clearance from the Ministry of Finance for the recruitment of health professionals before the end of the year. The Ministry will continue to engage with the Ministry of Finance to secure this clearance for the benefit of our professionals at home. The recruitment portal will be reopened as soon as additional financial clearance is granted.
Recruitment of Medical Officers
In the weeks to come, the Ministry will also start the process towards the recruitment of Medical Officers to fill over vacancies across the country, especially in rural and deprived areas of the country.
Recruitment of the Volunteers
We will also start the recruitment of the volunteers (Stipend payment), especially Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP), to support the FPHC Initiative soon. The voluntary service initiative seeks to provide financial support and offer professionals the opportunity to safeguard potential skills loss while contributing to the success of the FPHC Initiative. This year, the recruitment of volunteers will cover over 6,000 prospective professionals who completed school from 2022 to date.
Acknowledgement
The Ministry acknowledges that more health professionals are needed to expand access to quality healthcare delivery across the country.
Conclusion
The Ministry of Health remain committed to creating recruitment opportunities for all categories of health professionals, as demonstrated in the current process. Quality healthcare delivery in the Health Sector depends on effective teamwork across all professional cadres.
Our agenda, spearheaded by the vision of our Minister to ensure that the underserved districts are adequately served with the requisite health professionals is on course. Together and with your support we shall achieve this objective which is very critical for the achievement of the country’s UHC and SDG targets.
Thank you.
Source:www.senaradioonline.com
