The nationwide nurses’ strike action is having a huge toll on the Sunyani Teaching Hospital, authorities at the facility said on Monday.
The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) began the industrial action June 2, 2025, insisting that they would not return to work until their demands were met.
They are protesting the delay in the implementation of the 2024 Collective Agreement, which governs salaries, allowances, and working conditions.
During a visit to the teaching hospital, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) noticed that many clients were stranded because of the absence of the nurses.
The few of them who were sighted around the Accident and Emergency unit were noticed busily interacting on their mobile phones, as doctors attended to Out-Patient Department (OPD) cases, took vital information and studied client’s laboratory investigations.
However, there was relative calm at the premises of the facility with most of the wards virtually empty, as some of the clients on admission looked worried.
Mr Adams Umar Mengu, the Deputy Head of Administration at the Hospital, told the GNA that the absence of the nurses undermined the quality of the client’s services.
He said: “most of the nurses have deserted their duty posts and that have compromised quality healthcare delivery here,” a situation he added had further overburdened the doctors on duty.
Mr Mengu said due to the strategic location of the hospital, the facility had seen an increase in referral cases from the Savannah and the Western North regions.
“Management has pleaded with the doctors, including those on annual leave and off duties, to assist and help salvage the situation for now, but there is still a big gap in general services,” he stated.
He said: “the doctors have expanded their scope of work, performing additional duties,” adding that “even admitting clients is a big problem for us now.”
Mr Mengu said the facility was trying to manage the situation for at least a week and called on the government to do something about the situation immediately for the nurses to rescind their decision and return to work.
GNA/ Edited by Dennis Peprah and Lydia Kukua Asamoah
