Sekondi, June 23, GNA - Effia Nkwanta Hospital at Sekondi is now deserted with no sign of life, dirty and over grown with weeds. During a visit to the hospital by Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday, all the major units had been locked. The desertion is due to a strike action by health workers group of the hospital on June 8 asking Government to work on their salary disparities.

The group include members of Association of Health Services Administrators (AHSAG) Ghana, Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHPA), Health Accounting Staff Association (HASA) of Ghana and Health Services Workers Union of Ghana (HSWU). Others are Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), Ghana Federation of Allied Health Professions (GFAHP), Ghana Medical Assistants Association (GMAA) and Ghana Association of Nurses Anaesthetists.

The over 500 health workers who began their strike on June 8 at the hospital agreed to take care of patients on admission and handle emergency and accident cases only. They have since then discharged all the sick and refused to return to work. The Out Patients Department (OPD), Children's unit, laboratory, ear nose and throat unit, dental, psychiatry, male surgical, women's ward, labour wards, maternal and child health care units of the hospital have been closed while few medical practitioners were seen around. However, the Blood bank and Voluntary Counselling and Testing Unit (VCT) were opened. The hospital wards were dirty, while weeds on the compound had over grown.

No official of the hospital was around to speak to the GNA. Mr Henry Obuoba-Ansa, a businessman, speaking to the GNA, said the strike action had affected the smooth implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). He said many people who were initially sceptical about the NHIS could no longer access health care due to the continual strike action of health care providers. Mr Obuoba-Ansa appealed to the striking health workers to resume work to save lives and reduce people's dependence on self-medication. He appealed to stakeholders and Ghanaians to ask the striking health workers to resume work without delay. Mr Obuoba-Ansa said private clinics had now become the major area where several people sought expensive and exorbitant health care.