By Samira Larbie
Accra, June 9, GNA-Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, the Acting Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Monday appealed to the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) to call off the strike and go back to the negotiation table.
He said the continuous strike would further endanger the lives of patients, adding; “we are all potential patients, and we all need that care.”
Prof Kaba made the appeal on the sidelines of the signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between the GHS and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the CK Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Accra.
“Let me take the opportunity to call on our sisters and brothers (nurses) to return to work. Just yesterday, I asked a nurse, who is pregnant, how she would feel if she was rushed to the hospital to deliver and realise that nurses are on strike,” he said.
“Would you say I won’t deliver today because we are on strike? No.”
“…. So, I humbly add my voice to the honorable minister that please come back to work and let’s continue negotiating.”
The GRNMA, in May this year, announced a phased withdrawal of services starting in early June 2025.
The industrial action is to protest the government’s prolonged delay in implementing their collective agreement.
The agreement, a comprehensive document covering all nurses and midwives in Ghana, was signed in May 2024 by the GRNMA, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, but remains unimplemented a year later.
The strike began with the withdrawal of all Out-Patient Department (OPD) services nationwide from June 4 to 8 and a complete withdrawal of all services commencing from June 9, 2025, despite the efforts of the government to get the Association to rescind its decision.
Meanwhile, a visit to some hospitals by the Ghana News Agency on Monday revealed that the strike had taken effect in full force.
The Association has also formed a task force going around the various hospitals to ensure compliance.
At the Greater Accra Regional Hospital not a single nurse was seen at the OPD attending to patients, leaving doctors to carry the workload.
The situation was not different at the Adabraka Polyclinic as three assistant nurses in plain clothes attended to emergency cases with the help of doctors.
However, due to their limited number, they were forced to work from 0800 to 2000 hours. Cases that reported after the closing time were referred.
However, an official at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital told the GNA on anonymity that some nurses were at post attending to critical OPD cases.
They were, however, threatened by the task force, which led to a misunderstanding, but the matter was later resolved.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe