The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has suspended its strike following a directive from the National Council on Friday.
Members of the Association withdrew all Out Patient Department (OPD) services on Monday over unpaid salary arrears, lack of logistics among other challenges.
Most patients who visited the various hospitals for treatment were left stranded as the nurses and midwives insisted they would attend only to emergency cases.
They had earlier given government an ultimatum to resolve the issues confronting them but government’s failure to meet their demands ahead of time forced their action.
According to the General Secretary of the Association, Perpetual Ofori- Ampofo, they have suspended their strike with immediate effect, however monitoring to ensure government honours its new commitment to address their concerns.
“We are going to resume our work at the OPD unit, RCH unit and the family planning unit and continue our work in all other departments. We are going to resume to work with immediate effect pending how our stakeholders help to address the issues per the timelines they have given, so we are going to monitor all the issues critically and ensure that the concerns of all our members are well addressed,” she said.
She told Citi News that the Council has given government up to the end of February 2017 to fully address all their concerns.
“We have decided as council that we are looking at a period from now till the end of February and we are communicating same to the National Labour Commission and other stakeholders and if by that time, all our concerns are not addressed then we are going to return to the roadmap,” she added.
‘Nurses declare indefinite strike’
This is not the first time nurses and midwives in the country have expressed their frustration over unpaid salaries.
In February 2016, they declared an indefinite strike over their unpaid salaries. The health workers said government’s refusal to pay them their salaries was affecting their livelihoods.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana