Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, says the Government and the people of Jamaica are confident in the work and expertise that the Ghanaian nurses will bring to Jamaica.
“Even as Jamaica is expanding our health services, certainly we are confident in your knowledge, your skills, your care, your commitment, your abilities, your professional sense… your love and kinship, and that combination, we believe, is going to be powerful,” she said.
The minister was addressing a welcome reception for the first cohort of 43 Ghanaian nurse specialists at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston recently.
The nurses, who arrived in the island early Monday morning, will contribute to strengthening the country’s healthcare workforce and support the delivery of quality health services.
Senator Johnson Smith told the nurses that their presence in Jamaica was a shining example of diplomacy in action, beginning with the sowing of a small seed of interest in May 2025, during her discussions with Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on the margins of the meeting of the Organization of African Caribbean and Pacific States’ (OACPS) Council of Ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
“We said we needed to have a bilateral after to re-energise our engagement and when we sat, one of the very first things we identified as a possible area of cooperation was the recruitment of nurses,” she shared.
“So, we are here celebrating the fruit of what has been incredibly hard work.”
The minister noted that the arrangement represents another level of the Jamaica-Ghana relationship, transcending cultural and ancestral ties into a modern, structured partnership.
“It … puts practical and people-based service at the heart of what is already an ancestral [connection],” she said.
Senator Johnson Smith, in welcoming the nurses, told them that they are “home”.
“You will be well taken care of. We hope you will enjoy and become more professionally enriched from your experiences here,” she said.
The nurses arrived under the Jamaica-Ghana Bilateral Health Cooperation Agreement, which targets 400 healthcare workers joining Jamaica’s healthcare system.
They bring specialist expertise in areas such as critical care, paediatrics, operating theatre, emergency care, oncology, mental health/psychiatric care and nursing/midwifery.
The majority of the 43 nurses will be assigned to the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), which manages health facilities in St James, Westmoreland, Trelawny and Hanover; and the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), which oversees Kingston, St Andrew, St Thomas and St Catherine.
– JIS
Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.