Correspondence from Bono Region With the ongoing nationwide strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) entering the second week, health facilities in the Bono Region have started feeling the brunt of the industrial action.
Currently, many health facilities in the region are without the full complement of their caregivers due to the strike action because members of the GRNMA have fully complied with the directive and have refused to report for duty, which is affecting operations at the outpatient departments, emergency units, and other units.
The situation has compelled many health facilities across the region, including the Sunyani Municipal Hospital, to implement a series of urgent and strategic measures to ensure that essential healthcare services continue uninterrupted.
According to Dr Michael Arthur, the Medical Superintendent of the Sunyani Municipal Hospital, duties such as attending to patients, recording vital signs, and facilitating medical consultations are now being undertaken by physician assistants and medical officers. "Currently, if you go to the emergency, the nurses are not there, the OPD too, they are not there as well, but we are running at the OPD because we have the physician assistants and medical officers, so we have now stepped into the shoes of the nurses to render the services that we can also do to the public." Similarly, the management of the Sunyani Teaching Hospital has also put in place proactive steps by activating a range of contingency measures, such as recalling Doctors on leave and Doctors on permission to assist in healthcare delivery during this critical moment. "We are using the available resources that are here… a few of the nurses are around, which we are leveraging on.
