GRNMA: Huge relief to patients as health workers suspend strike

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association(GRNMA) has suspended its series of strikes staged over poor conditions of service.

The duty boycott by the nurses, midwives, and other service providers commenced on Monday, September 21, 2020.

Scores of patients were abandoned at various government healthcare facilities across the country due to the absence of health personnel.

However, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has asked the striking nurses and midwives to immediately call off the industrial action and avail themselves for negotiations to continue.

Although the concerns of the GRNMA are yet to be addressed, its leadership hascalled off the three-day-old strike.

GhanaWeb visited the Greater Accra Regional Hospital(GARH) popularly known as the Ridge Hospital to find out how healthcare delivery is shaping out after the industrial action was called off.

Speaking to GhanaWeb, Head of Nursing and Midwifery at the GARH, Rebecca Agyare Asante said the striking nurses have taken back their roles at the duty posts.

“ As at now, I have visited all the areas within the facility. Both the antenatal, the midwifery, the obstetric and gynaecology, the paediatric emergency, I mean everywhere. The nurses and midwives have resumed full duty and their discharging their duties diligently”, she said.

A relative of a patient who spoke to GhanaWeb said “I was here yesterday. The nurses were on strike so the doctors assumed the roles of the nurses. We were given the drugs and told how to administer it.

Things are different today. The nurses have come back and they are working. It is actually my brother who is sick and I am the one taking care of him".

Other patients also expressed excitement as the health workers were going about the regular duties.

We also paid a visit to the Achimota Hospital in Accra to ascertain whether or not patients were being attended to after the strike was called off.

Patients expressed relief over the suspension of the industrial strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association.

The National Labour Commission (NLC) has given the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) up to October 28, 2020, to renegotiate and develop a document which will favour both parties.

Below is the video report