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Nurses abandon the wards, threaten strike

Chairperson of the Nurses, Jamila Hussein has told Pulse.com.gh that the nurses have resolved to stay away from the patients at the wards until their needs are addressed.

 

Chairperson of the Nurses, Jamila Hussein has told Pulse.com.gh that the nurses have resolved to stay away from the patients at the wards until their needs are addressed.

“For now we are out of the ward...”we don’t have the things to make the place conducive enough for us. We are not in the wards attending to any patient unless our needs are met. We are at post but we are not working. We are running away from the danger zone,” she said.

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According to her, pleas to government and the Mental Health Authority to come to their aid have proved futile.

“We gave a letter to the management, they met us and then yesterday [Thursday] we met the Mental Health Authority and they are all speaking the same language, they are saying that they have done all that they can but where it has gotten to they can’t fund. They have no money to help us because the LI hasn’t been passed; unless it is passed we are stuck. So we are talking with the minister or the government to please come to our aid and supply us with the logistics we need to work with. If not, we don’t enter the ward,” she said.

Dr Akwasi Osei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mental Health Authority (MHA), had earlier said that the Legislative Instrument (L.I) on mental health, when passed, will ensure the establishment of a Mental Health Fund which would enable the MHA to source for funding from private entities and also make mental health treatment community based.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time nurses at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital have threatened to embark on a strike.

In 2015, nurses at the facility embarked on an indefinite strike over unpaid salaries, but later called it off following government's intervention.

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The hospital, last month, also shut down its OPD due to financial constraints. It, however, reopened it following intervention by the Mental Health Authority.

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