Damongo Hospital Nurses Embark On Strike Over Unpaid Allowances

By Yakubu Abdul-Majeed

Damongo — Scores of patients, who went to seek medical attention at Damongo Government Hospital, in the West Gonja District of the Savannah Region, yesterday were stranded as nurses at the facility have embarked on a sit-down strike over unpaid allowance.

Some of the patients reportedly went to the hospital very earlier on Monday, but had to leave for their homes, as the nurses there were not prepared to attend to them.

According to the nurses, all efforts to get the allowance had not yielded any dividend, and they were left with no other option than to lay down their tools.

The Damongo Government Hospital, is the major health facility in the Savannah Regional capital, serving the people, and it is a referral facility for a number districts in the newly created region.

The decision of the nurses to lay down their tools was in a press statement signed by Abdul Karim Issah, Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, copied the Ghanaian Times.

According to the nurses, the management of the hospital pledged to pay the allowances but failed do so, hence their action.

"An agreement was reached between us and the management of the hospital for a 10 per cent basic salary allowances due us starting from January 2019, but they failed to pay it," the statement claimed.

The nurses further alleged that the management denied them study leave anytime they applied for it, according to the statement.

They bemoaned that the management's continuous refusal to grant them study leave to improve upon their skills was in bad taste, and an attempt to stifle them.

The nurses accused the hospital management of not promoting nurses, who were due for promotions, claiming that, "For some time now none of the nurses here have been promoted."

The nurses vowed not to not call off the strike until their demands were fully meant.

They also called for the removal of the administrator and the matron of the hospital, claiming that the two were the course of the hospital's problems.

All efforts to get the reaction of the management of the Damongo Hospital proved futile, as calls placed to their mobile phones could not go through at the time of filing the story.

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