On 2nd June, 2025 the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has been on strike since the Government failed to meet its end of the 2024 Collective Agreement. Nurses and midwives are an essential part of the healthcare system being they are the ones who care for the ill patients as well as run tests and analytics for the doctors to work on. This issue of non availability of nurses is affecting people with a report from the General Secretary of the mortuary workers Associations Richard Kofi Jordan revealing that the death toll has increased since the beginning of the strike, this information was found after Asempa FM interviewed Richard on Tuesday. There are many private hospitals but not everyone in the country can afford that healthcare system.
The GRNMA has nine key demands they want the government to agree to before the strike would be called off. As per GRNMA a delay in the government meeting their agreed understanding has pushed them to go this route. This protest has affected many people and left relatives of sick people in a frenzy. Government is currently facing a lot of backlash and has requested for retired midwives with nurses to return back to the field during this time. Their expectations that they are expecting government to meet include improved salaries, better working conditions and increased allowances for smooth running system.
Government should meet the demands which are ; book and research allowance, uniform allowance, fuel allowance , non-basic allowance, on call facilitation allowance , Rural incentive allowance, 13th Month allowance, continuous professional development support once these demands are met the nurses will begin work again. The has also been a rise in Monkey Pox in Ghana with 79 cases across the country with the help of nurses this issue can be curbed before this becomes a full blown pandemic locking us back in our home. I urge the citizens to push government to meet the demands of nurses to make our country a safe healthcare community once again.
