Nurses Strike Hits Korle-Bu

... As patients complain of little attention

The strike action embarked upon by the Greater Accra branch of Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) is taking a toll on the medical conditions of patients at the Korle Bu emergency ward as patients are getting little attention from some few plane cloth nurses.

A patient in a Plaster of Paris (POP) who spoke to The Chronicle yesterday, said they are finding things very tough at the wards especially those who cannot move and are very sick.

He said doctors and housemen on duty although are doing the work of the nurses but it was not being done professionally. Currently, doctors and housemen at Korle-Bu change the clothing of patients, administer drugs, and diagnose patients among others.

A plane clothed nurse who was on duty at the accident center who spoke under anonymity said that they might resume full duty today if very thing goes on well with the negotiations that are going on between her superiors and the ministry of health.

Meanwhile, the president of the University of Ghana Medical School Students Association, Mr. Kwaku Asah Opoku called on the government and all stakeholders to resolve the issue very quickly for the nurses to come back to do their work in order to save souls.

He said doctors and housemen are currently holding the fort for the nurses but they cannot do much. He said currently, this has had a lot of pressure on them both mentally and physically although they have stood the test so far.

It would be recalled that striking nurses at Korle Bu prevented colleagues from attending to patients which created a chaotic scene when a group of striking nurses at the hospital prevented their other colleagues from attending to patients.

The nurses embarked on a strike action to back their demand for an increment in their Additional Duty Hour Allowance (ADHA).

The nurses are demanding the implementation of a technical committee's report that suggested how best the ADHA should be calculated.

The government says it cannot implement the report because there are defects but the nurses insist the report must be implemented.

The striking nurses have so far defied their head, Mrs. Mary Ann Sackeyfio's orders and went ahead with the action.