Volta: The nationwide strike by nurses and midwives is taking a serious toll on healthcare delivery in public hospitals, leaving patients stranded and overstretching private health facilities across the capital, Ho.
According to Ghana News Agency, the industrial action, which began days ago, has forced many to seek care at expensive private clinics as public hospitals remain without nursing staff. “There will be a disaster if this is allowed to continue,” warned Mr. Mathias Avevi, Ho District Chairperson of the Nurses and Midwives Association. Speaking to GNA, Mr. Avevi described the decision to strike as painful but necessary, saying, “We have been forced to walk away from the very oath we swore to save lives.”
A visit to the Ho Teaching Hospital and Ho Municipal Hospital revealed deserted Out-Patients Department (OPD) and empty nurses’ stations, with no professional nurses or midwives available to attend to patients. Visitors arriving during the scheduled visiting hours were greeted by locked wards and no medical staff in sight.
Private hospitals in the Ho enclave, such as Royal Hospital and Foresight Hospital, among others, have since been overwhelmed with patients seeking urgent care. Nurses and midwives in these private facilities are now working extra hours to manage the influx, with some sacrificing their usual part-time shifts to work full days. “It’s like Christmas for private hospitals,” a senior nurse at a private clinic remarked. “We are overstretched and exhausted, but the patients just keep coming because they have nowhere else to go,” a nurse spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some patients and caregivers have appealed to the government to swiftly resolve the impasse, as the financial burden of accessing healthcare in the private sector is becoming unbearable. Many families report paying significantly higher fees for services that are ordinarily affordable in public hospitals. A frustrated patient at a private facility lamented, “Surprisingly, these same nurses and midwives I knew at the public hospitals, who used to idle about, are now busy working here without any formal agreement. It is unfair, and the government must act now,” Mad. Stella lamented.
As the strike enters another week, health sector observers fear the situation could escalate further if no resolution is reached, placing more lives at risk in already overstretched healthcare institutions. The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) declared the strike after government delays or refused to implement a new bargaining agreement signed last year. While key stakeholders, including the Chief Director of the Ghana Health Service, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, and the Minister of Health, have signed the deal, the Ministry of Finance has yet to commit.
The Finance Minister has instead called for a review of the agreement, citing budgetary constraints, a move the striking health association has described as unfair given the urgency of their demands. The delay has sparked widespread frustration among healthcare professionals and the public alike. Under the new bargaining agreement, the nurses and midwives are requesting approval to generate Internally Generated Funds (IGFs), payment of uniform allowance, fuel allowance for senior nurses and midwives, book and research allowances, rural incentives, and free medical care for staff, among other demands. They have also raised concerns about the government’s decision to assign students and rotational nurses and midwives to critical roles in the absence of experienced professionals. The association insists these temporary staff lack the necessary experience to manage life-threatening cases.