Ghana and 53 other countries are on the UK’s blacklist for hiring medical personnel

Ghana has been listed as one of 54 nations where businesses in the health and social care sector should not actively pursue hiring.

The UK government made this declaration in its updated code of practise for hiring health and social care professionals from abroad, which was made public on the NHS Employers website.

When actively seeking health or social care personnel, the Code of Conduct for International Recruiting states that some developing nations including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivoire shouldn’t be sought.

According to a press release on the NHS website, the mentioned nations have a UHC Service Coverage Index below 50 and a density of physicians, nurses, and midwives that is lower than the median for the world (48.6 per 10,000 population).

The list, however, has no effect on an individual health and social care worker applying on their own initiative to a health and social care company for employment in the UK without being targeted by a third party, such as a recruiting agency or employer (known as a direct application).

The nations listed on the code’s “No active recruitment” red list are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia.

The remaining nations are Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Republic of Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, and Rwanda.