Swedru nurses embark on sit down strike

Agona Swedru (Central Region) - Nurses at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital on Monday started a sit down strike to demand payment of disparities in additional duty allowance.

The strike action was in demand of review of allowances to conform with, those paid to nurses at Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals. Mrs Juliana Ocloo, Agona District Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the nurses were not satisfied with the huge disparities in the payment of the allowance.

She said for instance the nurses who worked throughout the week including the weekends received between ?300,000 and ?460,000 while others in Accra and Kumasi had ?1.8m.

Mrs Ocloo said reminders and delegations had been sent to the Minister of Health to address the issue but to no avail. Mrs Ocloo also accused management of reducing the number of extra hours worked and called on the management to pay according to the number of hours work was performed.

She could not tell when they will stop the strike since the decision was taken in Cape Coast last Wednesday 7 May. Dr. D.G. Demanya, Medical Officer in-charge of the Swedru Hospital, confirmed the story and said that in anticipation of the strike 10 patients were discharged.

He said the hospital would not admit any fresh patients since their lives could not be guaranteed. Dr Demanya said on Monday two emergency cases were referred to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra since no nurse was on duty to assist.

Joseph Brown, the Hospital Administrator, denied that the management reduced the number of hours worked by the nurses. ''Pay vouchers are sent to Cape Coast and equivalent cheques are issued to that effect'', he said.