According to Ghana News Agency:atient care, after a week-long industrial action over unresolved issues concerning their conditions of service. At the renal unit of the Ho Teaching Hospital, the usually busy dialysis section was empty.
A woman who had brought her mother for a scheduled dialysis session expressed deep concern over the situation. ‘We came this morning for my mother’s dialysis, but there was no one there. It’s worrying because some of us cannot afford dialysis at private hospitals – it’s simply too expensive,’ she told the GNA. ‘If care is not taken, our relatives will die – not because the machines are faulty, but because the nurses are not here to operate them due to the strike,’ she added.
Another distraught relative echoed the plea: ‘We are begging the government to do something so the nurses can return to work. Lives are at stake.’
In an interview with the GNA, Mr. Israel More Ayivor, Volta Regional Public Relations Officer of the GRNMA, confirmed that the association had not received any formal directive from the National Labour Commission (NLC) to end the strike, despite rumors to that effect. He emphasised that the strike would continue until the government addresses their demands, even though it was not the association’s wish to see patients suffer.
‘We’ve written several letters to the government about our concerns, but they’ve been ignored,’ Mr. Ayivor said. ‘We began by wearing red bands as a warning and gradually started withdrawing services. Now, we have fully withdrawn all services, and it is clear the government is not taking us seriously.’
The GRNMA initiated the nationwide strike in protest over what it described as the government’s delay in implementing agreed-upon conditions of service, including improved remuneration and better working conditions. Meanwhile, sources close to an emergency closed-door meeting between the Ministry of Health and the GRNMA on Monday, June 9 indicated that there was no budgetary allocation for the implementation of the proposed service conditions. The government reportedly requested a postponement until 2026 – a proposal the GRNMA has outright rejected, vowing to continue the strike.
The situation has left many patients, particularly those in need of critical care such as dialysis, in limbo, as hospitals across the country grapple with the impact of the nurses’ absence.