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The Greater Accra Regional Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anthony Nupkepnu has conceded that his government erred in scrapping the allowances of nursing trainees in the country.

“On the nursing trainee allowances, I would say, we might have erred in that direction because if the steps being taken were not ripe we shouldn’t have gone in to take them off. This is because they are not yet being awarded the diploma and the necessary facilities that we need to improve on the nursing trainees have not yet been done and I think we should not have taken them in line with the teachers,” he said.

Government stripped the trainees of such benefit in a bid to admit more students  in the various nursing training colleges. 

Government had complained that the huge amount it paid as allowances to the trainees prevented it from admitting more students.

But the decision was met with much resistance from the students who rely on the allowances to support themselves in school; however government subsequently restored the allowance following recommendations from a committee it set to investigate the matter.

Meanwhile speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, Mr. Nupkenu blamed the error on the sector ministers saying “I will put the blame before the ministers and those who manage the health sector.”

He however defended President John Mahama arguing that he took the right action by restoring the allowances.

“President Mahama never erred because he would also take this inputs from people who manage the sector…Sometimes as government we are also sometimes caught in traps and when you are moving and you realized that the decision you have taken will not inure to the larger benefit, you need to come to the table, look at it and put in the systems that will make it work well.”