An ongoing strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) over a perceived failure to implement a 2024 collective bargaining agreement is affecting patients. The most impacted is rural health care.
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00:00Yousef Rahma is here for an antenatal care appointment.
00:05But there is no one to examine her pregnancy as nurses and midwives across Ghana go on strike.
00:13I was scheduled to come for ANC today. Now they are not working. I don't know what will happen when I go back.
00:21The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association says this strike is more than salary.
00:28It is about survival.
00:30We are really struggling. We are going through a lot. Our salary is nothing to take home.
00:36Even some of the months before they even pay you, you have even borrowed money from friends and colleagues.
00:41In early 2024, nurses negotiated a deal with the government.
00:46It included fuel and medical allowances, support for practicing license, a uniform allowance,
00:53and incentive for healthcare workers in remote regions.
00:58However, months later, they claimed nothing in the deal has been honored.
01:04In larger hospitals, services are now being provided by various unions of healthcare professionals who disagree with the strike.
01:12We feel that declaring an industrial action is the last resort for an employee or union leader should take.
01:21We would have wished to join the strike if maybe we had exhausted all the internal mechanisms.
01:27The Minister of Health is open for us to further engage us.
01:31The Minister of Finance is available to us and even scheduled a meeting to meet us in June, on the 18th of June.
01:38So why the rush to declare an industrial strike?
01:41Ghana's Labour Commission has called the strike illegal and ordered an immediate suspension.
01:47But the GRNMA, the country's largest nursing union, has not backed down.
01:54If it continues, patients like you could be left without care.
02:08Contrable awareness.
02:11As I said, the ruptured £3,000.