General News of Thursday, 6 April 2000

Source: JoyFM

Korle-Bu Nurses embark on sit down strike

Junior Nurses at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital are on a sit down strike. They include enrolled nurses, staff nurses and midwives. The nurses, who threatened to go on strike last Monday, said late yesterday that unless their Additional Duty Hour allowances (ADH) were paid they would not attend to patients.

A visit by the newsmen to most of the wards and clinics indicated that apart from the dental clinic, nurses were not attending to patients. Some nurses, who pleaded anonymity, said that they had been taken for granted for a long time, and so this time they would wait till all that is due them is given before they work.

Efforts to speak to the leadership of the nurses proved futile because they were at a meeting with the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare. Other top officials refused to comment on the issue.