The Upper East Regional branch of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) on Wednesday entreated its members nationwide not to turn away patients who reported to access medical care at health facilities in the wake of the doctors on-going strike.
It advised that such patients should be given the basic attention and resuscitated, and then referred to active health facilities where necessary.
The GRNA made the call through a press release signed by Mr Samuel Akolgo Alagkora, Regional Chairman of the Association, and presented a copy to the GNA in Bolgatanga.
The Nurses appealed to Medical Directors and Superintendents at post to attend to patents in order to reduce the effects of the strike on sick people.
He said the turning away of some patients by some nurses in some regions was unfortunate and urged them to desist from it.
“Our work is not dependent on that of doctors and we are independent professionals who are only in a team with other professionals”.
However the statement indicated that the lack of commitment by government and failure by the Labour Commission (NLC) to offer good moderation to the parties in industrial disputes provoked lots of suspicions, it said.
“We wish to warn government and all stakeholders that the labour front could be milkier and chaotic if the various players fail to return to the drawing board. This is because the current atmosphere of labour and industrial engagement is shrouded in a lot of suspicion and mistrust among various players”.
The association therefore called on the NLC to be proactive in pre- empting all challenges even before they developed into full blown industrial actions “and not wait till a strike action is declared for it to come out and say the strike action was illegal”.
It also condemned the leaking of proposed conditions of service of the GMA, describing it as unprofessional and should not be repeated.
The Association appealed to the striking doctors to return to the negotiating table.
It also urged government communicators to refrain from attacking leaders in the current impasse, since some of their comments were ill-informed and misleading, and had the tendency to create more problems.
For their members, the Association said, “We will like to assure our entire members to remain calm as the association has presented its proposal on our conditions of service for all nurses and midwives to government pending negotiation.
