All is not well with the health delivery service countrywide because nurses are on strike.
Outpatient Departments (OPDs) especially are completely grounded, leaving patients seeking medical intervention helpless.
Nurses play a critical role in health delivery worldwide. It is for this reason that their welfare must be paramount concern to governments.
Unfortunately, however, there have been instances where their concerns have been overlooked or even taken for granted. That is not to say that other segments of the healthcare delivery system do not have concerns or they do not matter.
In the past regime, we noticed how many strides were made towards bettering the lot of nurses. These without doubt made the Florence Nightingale’s profession more attractive to young ladies and gentlemen.
Of particular importance was the training allowance offered to nursing students across the country.
As the strike bites harder, we have noticed an attempt to break the ranks of the front of the nurses through the encouragement to create splinter unions.
This is not the first time that this is happening. Divide-and-rule under the circumstances will not be in the interest of achieving the goal of getting nurses to return to the wards and the OPDs.
Let us look at the overall picture and respond accordingly. The Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health should respond positively to the challenge at hand.
This is not the time to do politics, because it would not be in the interest of health delivery in the country.
We call upon the relevant authorities to rise above political mischief and engage the leadership of the nurses so a workable solution can be found.
This is not the first time that nurses have been on strike. However, when they raise the red flag about government reneging on promises to address their concerns in specific areas, amicable solutions can be found.
If under the previous administration nurses were promised some incentives, same must be provided by the successive government since after all governance is a continuum.
Governments which take over from their predecessors must carry out promises made earlier.
The nurses’ strike is critical not because it involves the health of the people. Strikes can be infectious, especially when there are instances of other unions fretting about unsolved challenges or unfulfilled promises.
As we compose this commentary, there is credible information that the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are preparing to abandon the lecture halls because of unpaid research and book allowances.
Technical Universities Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) have also served notice to go on strike.
Labour unrests must be handled with finesse and decorum so they do not escalate and threaten the smooth management of the country.
We therefore call upon government to engage the nurses for an amicable solution to the seeming impasse. As for the attempt at breaking the front of the nurses and midwives, it would be counterproductive and create bad blood among the health providers.