Patients, pregnant women in Western Region stranded over GRNMA's strike

Correspondence from Western Region

Some patients and pregnant women in the Western Region have been affected by the on-going nationwide strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA).

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association announced a total withdrawal of its services from Monday, September 21, 2020.

A visit to some hospitals in Western Region especially at Takoradi Government Hospital by GhanaWeb spotted some pregnant women stranded without any medical attention.

GhanaWeb also spotted the Female Ward and the Eye Department of the Takoradi Government Hospital being closed and locked with keys without any staff around.

GhanaWeb Correspondent engaged some pregnant women and patients and also some clients who came to the hospital for scan and medical attention.

One lady who came to the hospital to do scan shared his frustration to our Correspondent and stated that, "I am not a sick person but I supposed to go for my 36-week scan today but when I came they told me that they are on strike".

He continued, "I called the Midwife and told me that they are not coming to work today or tomorrow and also said I should her often to confirm if they are coming to work or not".

"When you go to maternity ward they have closed it and even today that is strike they are charging us GHC40 instead of GHC10 for each scan", she worried.

"There is no nurse here, all the pregnant women are returning home", she added.

She, therefore, took the opportunity to appeal to government to do something about the strike to save lives.

"What I will tell the government is that the money they supposed to give to the nurses they should do it because the world's Economy is hard due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. We can't sit at home and give birth so government must do something about it," she urged.

One pregnant women who is in critical condition told GhanaWeb this "when I came they said they have gone on strike and was told I supposed to go to the lab for drugs and do my scan but no one is coming to us, we are confused and we will ask them to do something about it".



Another pregnant woman also told GhanaWeb that, "they have told us to go home because they are on strike so we are sitting here to see if they will help us, the Doctor has promised to look after us so we are waiting for him, we are disturbed, we are praying to God to touch their hearts to help us"

GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent realized that all the public health facilities in the region are either empty without any patients or with patients but no nurse to attend to them.