Mahama blames Health Ministry for nurses' strike

President John Mahama has bemoaned the failure of the state to settle the salary arrears of striking nurses.

According to him, lapses in the Human Resource Management system of the Health Ministry has accounted for the current crisis.

The Coalition of unpaid Nurses and Midwives embarked on a nationwide strike on Monday over unpaid salaries.

The affected health workers, numbering over 7,000 from across the country, say they would only rescind their decision if government pays them their due in full.

Speaking to France 24 in an interview, President Mahama said measures are being put in place to ensure that the nurses’ data are processed on time to pay them quickly.

“The nurses’ strike is not to do with them asking for more money, it is a failure of our human resources department. The ministry of health is not able to process quickly enough the data of new nurses so that the accountant general can capture it and begin to pay them.

“Often when the postings are done, it takes the ministry too long to process their data, so the nurses stay for a protracted time without salaries and that is what is irking the nurses”.