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The Ministry of Health has expressed concern over the increasing number of unemployed health professionals in the country, citing the uncontrolled growth of private health training institutions as a major contributing factor.
This concern was raised following a call by Parliament’s Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources urging the Ministry of Finance to immediately release funds for the deployment of over 2,000 Environmental Health Officer graduates. These officers have remained unposted since 2021, despite the country’s ongoing sanitation challenges.
Beyond sanitation officers, several other trained health workers from different specialties have also been left without postings for the past four years.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, May 29, 2025, Ministry of Health spokesperson Tony Goodman explained that many private training institutions are enrolling large numbers of students without considering the actual manpower needs of the healthcare sector.
According to him, while the Ministry bases its training programs on specific national and regional health requirements, private institutions often operate independently of this system, focusing instead on financial gains.
“We currently have close to 100,000 trained health workers who have not been employed for the last five years,” Goodman revealed. “It would be unrealistic and financially irresponsible to attempt recruiting all of them in a single year.”
He noted that many of the private institutions admit students in high volumes to sustain their operations and cover costs, without ensuring that these graduates can be absorbed into the health sector.
“These schools continue to produce large numbers of graduates and then turn to the Ministry, expecting us to offer them jobs. But we train according to actual health needs in specific areas, which many of these private schools do not take into account,” he explained.
The Ministry’s position highlights the growing disconnect between health training capacity and employment opportunities, sparking renewed calls for tighter regulation of private institutions and better alignment between training and national healthcare demands.
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