Some nurses at the Ministry of Health yesterday
The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has embarked on a nationwide strike following a communiqué from its executives urging them to withdraw from their duties, as they have launched strike action against the government.
In a communiqué available to the paper, the national executives outlined its roadmap for the total withdrawal of all nursing and midwifery services from June 9, midnight, till further notice.
“This means all nurses on night duty are to withdraw their services from that time onwards, until further notice is issued by the National Executive Council (NEC). No one should be seen at post – whether in a mufti, scrubs, or uniform.
“We are aware that some unit heads are calling their staff to report for duty. This must stop immediately. Such actions directly undermine our collective effort and the directives of the national body,” the communiqué stated.
The communiqué further stressed that it will roll out a task force to monitor facilities, emphasising that any nurse found working in violation of the directive will be named and shamed.
As a result, patients are flooding the Outpatient Departments (OPDs) of hospitals, including the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, awaiting medical attention.
With nurses and midwives on strike, doctors are attempting to fill the gap, but significant delays in treatment persist.
Some patients who spoke with the media lamented over the current GRNMA strike action that has brought healthcare services to a grinding halt, causing concerns about patient care and safety.
Similarly, the Adabraka Polyclinic in Accra was eerily empty due to the ongoing nationwide strike by the GRNMA. With nurses absent from their posts, patients were left unattended, forcing many to seek medical care at private hospitals. The strike has left patients scrambling for alternative healthcare options.
A visit to the Tamale Teaching Hospital revealed that patients were left unattended due to the absence of nurses. Some doctors were also forced to assume nursing duties as a result of the strike.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, Abdul Rahim Sulemana, a patient at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, expressed disappointment, noting that the strike is greatly affecting patients at the facility.
“The strike is affecting us patients. My injured leg was supposed to be dressed and my vitals taken as well as my medication, but there’s no nurse available to assist us,” he disclosed.
According to him, another patient on the ward who was scheduled for surgery could not go because there were no nurses to prepare him for the procedure, and therefore called on the government to intervene and resolve the issue before lives were lost.
The Chairman of GRNMA at Tamale Teaching Hospital, Iddrisu Yakubu, who confirmed the withdrawal of services to DAILY GUIDE, urged the government to sign the conditions of service so they could call off the strike.
He claimed that the management of the hospital had resorted to engaging National Service nurses and rotational nurses to fill the gaps left by the strike.
President of the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG) at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Lawrence Amoah, stated that their association does not support the strike and will continue to provide healthcare services to patients.
Meanwhile, the Director of Administration at Tamale Teaching Hospital, Emmanuel Sena Kwasi Donkor, Esq has assured the public that the facility remains committed to delivering healthcare services.
“The National Service nurses here were posted to this facility to work, and are operating under the supervision of senior nurses, so it’s false to say that management has brought in students to work as nurses,” he explained.
Offer Denied
The national executives of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association has rejected the government’s plan to defer their demand for better conditions of service to 2026.
Addressing journalists, GRNMA Vice President, Samuel Alagkora Akologo, revealed that following an emergency closed-door meeting with officials from the Ministry of Health, they attributed the government’s inability to meet the association’s demands to budgetary constraints.
“We were told that there was no budget provision for it, and these conditions of service were presented to the government in January, and we expected that they would be factored into this year’s budget. Unfortunately, we are being told that the challenges of implementation are such that they have budget constraints,” he said.
“And what they wanted us to agree on was to push implementation to 2026. What it means is that they want to set the conditions of the service calendar so that it will be like we have just renegotiated, and then we are moving on, so that the idea of arrears will not come in. This is not fair,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Registered Midwives Ghana (NARM-GH) has publicly disassociated itself from the ongoing nationwide strike initiated by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, citing a lack of due process and exclusion from key negotiations.
Speaking in an interview, President of NARM-GH, Leticia Asaba Atiah, explained that NARM-GH was removed from the GRNMA’s group without consultation, a decision she described as both unlawful and undemocratic.
“We are not in support of the strike because the due process was not followed. Our association was removed from the mother group’s (GRNMA) communication platform without consultation, an undemocratic move,” she stated.
“They (GRNMA) cannot legally do that. Nurses should not bargain for midwives. That is why we need an independent bargaining certificate to fight for our interests,” she said.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke & Eric Kombat