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The Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) has asked its three caretaker institutions to ensure prompt payment of allowances for Nurses and Midwives undergoing National Service. The caretaker institutions are the Government, the Ministry of Health, and the Ghana Health Services. This was contained in a five-point communiqu� issued at the end of the Association�s 14th Biennial Delegates Conference held in Wa in the Upper West Region last month. The conference was on the theme: ��Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery Practice Autonomy: Challenges and the Way Forward.�� The Communique which was signed by Ms. Emelia Codjoe Acting General Secretary of the Association was addressed to the institutions and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra. It asked Government to support the Principals of Health Training Institutions to independently select, interview and recruit qualified candidates into the nursing and midwifery training colleges. They should also abolish the charging of student-nurses during clinical practice in hospitals especially in the teaching hospitals. Annual Award scheme for Best Nurses and Midwives should also be instituted to reward nurses and ensure free medical care for nurses and midwives under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The Communique said though delegates at the conference appreciated the efforts by government to resolve the utility challenges, �We are appealing to government for a review of the increment to mitigate the sufferings of workers�. The Association said at the conference would resist any attempt by any person or group of persons who would push for the withdrawal of allowances of trainee nurses, saying, the allowances were negotiated for and factored into the Single Spine Salary Structure and must be retained. �We cannot accept to be marginalised by anyone who fails to recognise our rights as professionals and resort to acts that will undermine the respect due our profession which we hold as one of a matchless value Mr. Asante-Krobea President of the Association had said since the implementation of the SSSS, nurses and midwives were the only core health professionals that had not embarked on any strike, although they were not also satisfied with their placement. He said their resolve to put patient first as they abhorred the repercussions of their withdrawal of services could cause, respect for the labour law, reverence of the collective oath of the International Council of Nurses and upholding the principle of exhausting all channels of negotiation before considering a strike action. The Association, he said was not happy because the Managers of the National Health Insurance Authority had done a great disservice to the Nurses and Midwives for not exempting them from the payment of health care cost incurred from their line of duty. According to the GRNA President, 43 per cent of all ailments reported by that group of professionals were hospital-acquired out of which 31 per cent was back- trouble related. Additionally, he said 48 per cent of nurses and midwives in General Wards and 33 per cent in Oncology wards of hospitals in the country suffered from job place related back trouble Mr. Asante-Krobea was optimistic that nurses and midwives would fulfill not only the demands of patients who expected quality health care but also meet the demands of their employers with regard to productivity.