The President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, has requested the government to supply the health sector with requisite working equipment to increase productivity.

The president of the association believes that the provision of the necessary equipment will justify the 30% increase in public sector workers’ base pay salary which was announced on Thursday, January 12.

On January 12, the government increased the base pay for the 2023 financial year by 30% after several negotiations with Organised Labour.

Following the increment, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah said that they expect workers to increase their productivity and work to justify the reward.

“What we also require of workers, is also to increase their productivity and also work to justify this reward which is also coming to them. We are going to work together to ensure that our output at the workplace also increases. And we are charging Fair Wages and Tariffs Commission to lead that cause of monitoring what we do at the workplace and also coming out with measures to help us to be able to increase our productivity,” Awuah reiterated.

Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo however put forward that the increment will have very little to no impact if the government doesn’t provide the required logistics and they have to do certain tasks manually.

“Today, there are so many equipment that makes nursing care easier, but we don’t even have them. Look at the beds that we put our patients on. If you have to raise them at a certain angle; 90 degrees angle or 30 degrees or put them in a certain position, you have to always do these things manually – lifting and using pillows to adjust. There are beds that can do these all just by the press of a button,” myjoyonline.com quoted her.

She also said to Joy News that, the inadequacy of logistics at the various health facilities across the country has negatively impacted the level of productivity in the health sector as some of the equipment they use is even unhygienic.

“…most of these equipment have broken down; the trays, sphygmomanometer that we use in checking BP. Taking thermometers; go to some places, only one and you’re are using it from patient to patient and it’s unhygienic. These are some of the difficulties we find.”

She is, therefore, calling on the government to provide the health sector with the necessary equipment to enable them to provide good healthcare and make good use of the 30% base pay increment.

RJB/WA