Health Assistants’ Salary in Ghana: See What They Earn (2023)

One of the fundamental rights of a citizen of Ghana is health care. This is prescribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 which was presented by the United Nations.

Among the occupations saddled with the responsibility of providing health care are people known as health assistants. If you have an interest in who these people are and how much they earn, you are reading the right post.

Health Assistants Salary in Ghana

How Much Health Assistants Earn in Ghana

You must be itching to know about the health assistants’ salaries in Ghana. People seek out this sort of information mostly when they are about negotiating for a new job. We’ve got you covered in this regard.

Health assistants in Ghana earn about GHC 1800 every month. When you compare this with how much doctors earn, it is considerably low but this is the minimum wage. This implies that they could earn more based on certain factors.

Among these factors include years of experience, qualification, employer, and responsibilities. Since GHC 1800 is the minimum wage, no employer is allowed to pay lower than this. It could only be higher.

Health Assistants’ Salary in Ghana

Who is a health assistant?

A health assistant is a person who provides both clinical and administrative support in a variety of ways to medical professionals. They can be found in offices run by physicians, hospitals, and small clinics.

Part of their responsibilities includes preparing medical instruments, caring for patients, and preparing examining rooms.

Basic skills you need to be a health assistant

Every person that wants to become a health assistant needs to have a certain set of basic skills. These skills include:

  • Able to pay attention to detail.
  • Active listening skills.
  • Communication skills.
  • Interpersonal skills.
  • Strong computing skills.
  • Data entry skills.

A brief history of health assistants in Ghana

We have already discussed who a health assistant is. But let’s take a look at how the occupation developed in Ghana. We can trace the history of health assistants in Ghana back to the mid-1960s. Generally, trainees received training so they could care for patients as well as other medical services. This was done under the Ghanaian Ministry of Health.

At this time, this training was done on an ad-hoc basis. After a while, there was a huge increase in demand for health assistants in the country. This was because health assistants were very few and they weren’t properly distributed across the country.

The situation led to the establishment of the training institution in Kintampo. It was the first of such institutions set up by the Ghanaian Ministry of Health. This institution was called the Rural Health Training School.

The sole aim of setting up the training school was to train these health workers efficiently. After the training, the health assistants would be posted to different parts of the country, especially the remote areas. At the time, after their graduation, they were referred to as “health superintendents.”

Health Assistants in Ghana today

There are different categories of health assistants in Ghana today. As diverse as they are in categories, they all perform similar functions so we would still put them under the same umbrella. They include:

  • Medical assistants
  • Dental practitioner assistants
  • Nurse anesthetists assistants

The Rural Health Training School in Kintampo is now known as the College of Health and Well-being. To date, this is the only public training school for health assistants in Ghana. The only other training institutes are privately-owned. They include:

  • Narth-Bita College in Tema
  • Central University College in Accra
  • Presbyterian University College in Ashanti

Responsibilities of Health Assistants in Ghana

You should note that there are really no requirements to become a health assistant. All you need to attend the training school. We have already told you about the basic skills that you need to become a health assistant in Ghana.

So what are the responsibilities of a health assistant?

The responsibilities depend on the hospital, most of them include:

  • Sterilize equipment.
  • Conduct health checks.
  • Process lab samples.
  • Collect blood samples.
  • Restock consulting rooms.
  • Carrying out health promotions and other health education work.

Sometimes, their job may include:

  • Serving patients’ meals and feeding them.
  • Assisting patients to move around.
  •  
  • Making beds.
  • Soothing patients by speaking to them.
  • Checking patients and collecting pulse, temperatures, weight, and respirations.

Getting a job as a health assistant in Ghana

There is still a high demand for health assistants in Ghana. This is because there are few people interested in the occupation in the country. But the prospects are high and you can earn a decent living.

Conclusion

We have shown you how much health assistants’ salary in Ghana is as well as given you other pieces of information. If you are interested, you can seek information from the different schools mentioned above to get trained. Good luck.

See more on Salary in Ghana.

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