As the nationwide strike action by members of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, (GRNMA), Physician Assistants and Anesthetics enters day three, members of the public are beginning to feel the brunt.
The strike has thrown health care delivery into disarray as public health facilities are left virtually empty with few cases left to be managed.
At the Upper East Regional Hospital, a major referral center in the region, a peep into the Out Patient Department revealed an empty hall contrary to an often packed OPD with no nurse on sight to immediately respond to the health needs of clients. The emergency ward as at Tuesday, September 22, 2020 was completely empty with a security man sitting at a place designated for nurses at post.
The Children’s ward had five critically ill patients on admission while the Maternity ward was virtually empty with two mothers at the Neo-natal intensive care unit.
The facility has 19 doctors who have had their duty periods extended and rescheduled to provide OPD Services and run 24 hour cover for 42 patients currently on admission.
WE CAN’T ADMIT- REGIONAL HOSPITAL AUTHORITIES
Administrator at the Upper East Regional Hospital, Yakubu Zakaria in an interview with Dreamzfmonline.com explained that the hospital and the nation at large has not had a strike action of this magnitude.
He said the hospital has been hit hard by the strike after authorities were compelled to discharge patients who were relatively better adding the facility cannot admit anybody rushed to the facility.
“If I tell you we are faring well, I will be lying. Because we have not had a strike of this magnitude before in a very long while. So we are still trying to adjust to the current situation. Normally, when you have people striking, they pull off their services gradually, they don’t strike at once. They start by withdrawing some Services and then if their demands are not met then it moves into a total withdrawal. But this time it is not the case, all services were withdrawn completely and without the nurse, a health facility can hardly survive. So what we had to do between yesterday and today to see how we can reorganize the system was to discharge those who were relatively better leaving only 42 with the doctors scheduled to provide OPD and 24 hour cover. So for now, we’re not admitting, we can’t admit anyone”. He stressed.
ADVISE TO THE PUBLIC.
Mr. Zakaria advised members of the public to utilize the services of the private health facilities in the region. He noted that emergencies involving critical accident related cases cannot be managed at the facility.
“We refer to the private facilities now so as much as possible, let’s try and utilize the Private Health facilities. If it is minor accident cases, the surgical team are available but if it becomes critical that doctors will have to enter the theatre to operate and let the nurses continue, that is not possible so we have to get in touch with the private facilities. So now the referral system has changed. We refer to the private facilities instead of the reverse”.
RELATIVES OF ADMITTED PATIENTS BEG FOR THE RETURN OF NURSES.
Issah Alaala, a man in his middle 50s with a daughter who has been on admission for almost a month and feeding through tubes is deeply worried about the absence of the nurses.
He is therefore appealing to the nurses to consider humanity and return to their duty post as he appeals to government to address their concerns.
“We know as Nurses, they have a right to do that but they should consider humanity. If you have a child here and there is no nurse, things will not be fine. We have been here for one month but since the strike yesterday, it feels as if we have been here for two months. Even yesterday, a child died here. There was no one. If you look at him, he was strong but he has passed on. Look at this girl, she is lying there crying but there is no one to take care of her,” the distraught father said while pointing towards a pale looking girl reeling in what could best be described as uncontrollable pain.
NICU VIRTUALLY EMPTY.
A visit to the maternity ward on a regular day will be met with loud noise emanating from crying babies and screaming mothers. The situation at about 12:23pm Tuesday was different as the facility was silent as a place that was designated to serve as a cemetery.
There were however, two women and one Health Assistant at the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit of the maternity ward. The two who are providing what is widely known as kangaroo mother care to their preterm babies had worry written all over their faces following the absence of the nurses.
One of the Mothers, Atule Beatrice narrated how she had to remove a caster by herself.
“To me, the impact is that, it has affected me because as we speak, they have not dressed my wound. Under normal circumstances, if they operate you, they have to take care of you, for about four days but they discharged me the following day. Even when they discharged me, they didn’t remove the canula and the caster. It was a midwife that showed me how to remove it and I removed it by myself,” she said.
BABIES DELIVERED ON THE FLOOR AS PRIVATE FACILITIES DECRY BEING OVERWHELMED.
With the Regional Hospital and other public facilities now referring to the private facilities, some private facilities are disturbed about the number of people turning up for health care at their understaffed facilities with smaller bed capacities.
At the Amiah Hospital in Soe, a private facility that is at the receiving end of the strike by Nurses, Emmanuel Akugre Abanga, a Deputy Nursing Manager and Anesthetist explained that the hospital is receiving many clients than it expected.
“In fact, the situation is that we’re receiving so many clients than we expected and most of the cases that come here especially women who need to deliver through caesarian section are being sent here and our facility is a private place and we are not as big as the government place. So we have a lot of challenges, that is accommodation for them, so if you get to the maternity ward, we are forced to put some of them on the floor with student mattresses. We are constrained, we work from morning to evening so you see that so many staff have to duplicate their activities. We don’t have the space but we are doing our best. If this continues, our workers will wear off. Our hope is that government will address the issues for the nurses to return to avert any looming Health crises”.
Meanwhile, the National Labor Commission has secured a court order, ordering the striking nurses to resume work while engaging in compulsory deliberations to address their grievances.
