Korle Bu Nurses And Midwives To Withdraw Services

Nurses and Midwives of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have served notice of withdrawal of their services within one week. They demonstrated on Thursday in demand for better conditions of service. Their concerns are the non-payment of accumulated salaries, risk allowance, motivation packages and end of service benefit. According to the group who demonstrated today, Nurses, Midwives and Health Assistant clinical rendering their services at the hospital have not been paid for the past one year. They have therefore given the hospital management one week to address their concerns or suffer the consequences of their next line of action. �Suffice us to state that over the years we have made several proposals to management aimed at addressing our grievances through the leadership of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association to no avail.� Convener of the demonstration who doubles as spokesperson for the KorleBu Teaching Hospital chapter of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Ali Dantani Joseph said no amount of persuasion will convince them to rescind their decision unless the right thing is done. He lamented that the KorleBu Teaching Hospital which is the country�s major health referral centre has no well defined health care policy for members of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association and their immediate family relations. �Even though we act as the pivot of the hospital, our access to health care is only limited to the benefits provided by the NHIS; sadly before we access specialist care in the hospital, we need to get a referral from the polyclinic where we join queue just as the general public which is very embarrassing.� Ali Dantani thus challenged management of the hospital to develop a health care policy that will cover their health needs. On compensation, he directed, �There must be a policy to compensate us when we sustain injury arising out of the performance of official duties; some of our colleagues in the past have sustained serious degrees of injury inadvertently leading to their death with no form of compensation.� Ali Dantani insisted that members of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association deserved risk allowance, end of service benefit and motivation package which was abruptly stopped. He further advocated for the appointment of Principal Nursing Officers to the ranks of Deputy Directors of nursing services. �It is not motivating to note that the majority of the Principal Nursing Officers continue to remain in their current positions for more than ten years and we hereby urge management to appoint them to the ranks of Deputy Directors of nursing services.� Ali Dantani took a swipe at the KorleBu Teaching Hospital Lawyer, Ernest Aboagye for allegedly arrogating himself to the position of spokesperson for the Government and Hospital Pharmacist Association rather that serving the collective interest of all the labour fronts in the hospital.