Police Hospital Nurses on strike

Nurses - civilian paramedics - at the Police Hospital in Accra laid down their tools following what they described as unhealthy developments with regards to their conditions of service.

In an exclusive chat with The Crusading Guide, after a peaceful demonstration at the premises of the hospital, they told the paper that, “We are protesting today because we are not happy about some few things, especially the Additional Duty Allowance (ADH) allowance which majority of paramedics here are denied.”

The aggrieved nurses disclosed, “We the civilian paramedics here are not getting any risk allowance. We are only given ?5,000 per month of what they (authorities) term professional allowance, even though we also swim our hands in human blood just as the Doctors and Nurses do.”

In a letter signed by the concerned staff and copied to the Ministers for Health and Interior respectively, the workers stated categorically that early last year, workers who had been deprived of the ADH since its inception were asked to bring their inputs for the payment of the above allowance announced by the government for nurses and paramedical staff besides doctors.

The inputs, they noted, were to be prepared by the Hospital Administration and was accordingly followed but before the first payment could be effected, the senior officers of the various departments met, only to be told by the Medical Director that the names staffs from the Administration, Medical Records, CSSD, Ward Assistant, Ward Maids and Orderlies of the various wards, Laundry staff and other labourers should be deleted from the list.

Following this treatment, which dealt a blow to civilian paramedics, they consulted the Medical Director on the issue and the only thing he could say was that, “We should forget about the ADH because they were working on some greater incentives for us, which never came either.”

The workers contended that in as much as the White Paper of the government on the ADH included all manner of staff in the hospital and the Medical Director had allowed only the nurses, pharmacy technicians and the orderlies, and those of the transport section among others to enjoy the facility, the civilian paramedics have petitioned the above mentioned Ministers and the government to expedite action on the impasse.

However, a meeting, held between the Paymaster, Mr Gyabaah, Mr D.K. Arther (from Police Headquarters) and including the Medical Director, Mr Owusu Afriyie and the concerned staff, decided that the workers will be paid on Friday 19 April 2002 for November 2001 and paid subsequent ones later. The workers however, resolved to embark on a massive demonstration if their demands are not met by the close of the promised date.