The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has bemoaned the poor infrastructure in rural areas under which nurses provide services to patients.
President of the Association, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, told TV3’s Keminni Amanor on Hot Issues yesterday [Sunday, March 31] that some of the members are compelled to operate in mud houses in some parts of the country.
This, she noted, discourages nurses from accepting postings to those underserved areas.
“When you go down there to the health centres and CHPS compounds, to be frank with you, the conditions under which our members are working are really difficult,” she stated, adding, “Some find themselves even in areas where internet connectivity doesn’t reach there and people have to use canoes to cross rivers to get to their point of service or to get to the communities where they need to work.”
She further indicated that some of the health facilities in rural areas are not fit for purpose, saying, “You see some of the facilities in which our colleagues are sitting and working, and we call it a health centre.”
Asked what those facilities look like, she said, “Mud houses, which have the exterior just maybe tarred with cement, and once it begins to peel off, you can see the mud in there, the cracks in there, [and the] roofing that is not the best with leakages all over.”
Madam Ofori-Ampofo emphasised that improvement in the health sector goes beyond the use of drones for delivering medical supplies.
The president of GRNMA further noted that an agreed-upon negotiation with the government in 2020 to offer some relief packages to nurses who willingly accept postings to underserved communities has yet to materialise, indicating that the report is still at cabinet yet to be implemented.
“Government knows about these things,” she stated.
She added, “At our negotiation in 2020, we said we know the conditions under which our colleagues in rural underserved areas are working, so let’s put a package together and give it to them to motivate them…and the final report is done. What we are told is that it’s with Cabinet, it’s been there for close to two years now.”
The president maintained that the only way to retain nurses and midwives in Ghana to work is to improve their condition of service.
She stated that the condition of service of nurses and midwives in Ghana, compared to other countries, is not the best.
“If you ask me to describe it in a word or two, I will tell you it is not the best. It is not the best because, when you compare it to our compatriots who are in high-income countries or other countries where conditions are better, it is far better than what we have here. But we understand that the economy of Ghana is not the same as in these other countries,” said Ofori-Ampofo.
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According to her, the GRNMA is currently negotiating a better condition of service with the government. She expressed hope that the government would yield to their demands.