Legon nurses on strike

(Ghanaian Times) -- A strike by nurses and other para-medical staff of the Legon Hospital in demand for payment of their Additional Duty Allowance (ADA) by the government entered its second day on Thursday.

As a result, inpatients had to be discharged while the seriously ill, were transferred to either the Police or Korle-Bu Teaching Hospitals and other public health institutions. They warned that the strike would continue until their demands were met by the government.

At midday on Thursday, when the Times visited the hospital, the striking workers who were wearing red arm and head bands, were singing and dancing calling on the government to act quickly. Mr Samuel Dwase, chairman of the Hospital Staff Welfare Association, said the Additional Duty Allowance was instituted by the Ministry of Health some time in 1998 for doctors and other health workers, who worked beyond the normal working hours.

Doctors at the hospital, he said, had since been enjoying the facility while we have been left out for reasons best known to the Ministry. ?We started agitating about a year ago and have exhausted every legitimate avenue as far as channels for redress of grievances are concerned,? Mr Dwase said.

Negotiations, according to him, continued between the staff and management until 9 May was agreed upon for the commencement of payment of the Additional Duty Allowance. He said the workers were compelled to resort to the strike action after an emergency meeting at which a resolution was adopted to embark on the action.

Some senior nurses told the Times that they are also human beings and must be given equal attention by the government. They argued that they, as nurses, do the bulk of the work whiles the doctors only prescribe drugs and wondered why the doctors should be paid the said allowance whiles they are left unheeded to.

The nurses noted that the hospital had been losing nurses to other public and private hospitals because of the anomaly. "Legon Hospital is no longer what it was established for," one senior nurse lamented, pointing out that now, as a public hospital, it attends to patients from Akwapim, Madina, parts of Accra and surrounding villages thus making their job an extra burden.

Dr Eugenia Ofori-Adjei, Chief Executive of the hospital, confirmed the nurses, action when contacted and said as head of the hospital, she had been involved in the negotiations to have the matter resolved but her efforts had proved futile. "I hope by the end of the day, the letter approving the payment of the allowance will have been ready for the striking staff to return to work."

Mr Kofi Doe-Lawson, Assistant General Secretary of the Local Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), was optimistic that the matter would be resolved on Friday, following progress made at negotiations between the local union, the management of the University and striking staff.