Sunyani, April 21, GNA - Health workers in Sunyani on Friday joined their colleagues in the nationwide strike in their demand for better salaries.

When GNA visited the Sunyani Municipal Hospital, only a few of them were seen idling about without attending to patients who had reported for treatment.

The patients who were not aware of the action had waited at the Out Patients Department (OPD) for hours without being attended to. Some of them later left to private hospitals and clinics. The situation at the antenatal clinic was not different as nursing mothers seen leaving for home, with their babies either strapped at their backs or holding them.

Few of the nursing mothers however, adopted the 'wait and see attitude' and were found discussing the action with the health staff. When contacted on telephone, Dr. Alhaji Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Health Services said medical practitioners were are not part of the strike action and were rendering normal services, especially to patients on admission.

He said new patients at the hospital were not being attended to because the doctors could not "run services" without the assistance of nurses and other staff, including pharmacists and accountants. The Regional Director said the nurses refused to work, because, they were acting on instructions from their union leaders. Meanwhile the strike action has given a sharp rise in attendance of patients at private hospitals and clinics within the municipality. Some staff at Nkwabeng Hospital, one of seven designated private health facilities included in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme, reported of sudden increase in patients but they were coping with the situation.

Common cases recorded at the hospital were malaria, diarrhoea, fever and other communicable diseases. Dr Aaron Asare, Director in charge of the hospital told GNA in an interview on Friday that the hospital had not experienced any difficulty with regard to the operations of the scheme. He said the hospital was ready to work hard and offer the needed support to sustain the scheme.

Mr Kwame Kyeremeh, a 53 year-old farmer who sustained a broken arm in an accident two months ago could not hide his disappointment when he had to return home unattended to when he went to the Sunyani Regional Hospital for a review as a result of the strike action by the health staff.

"My daughter, I came for review, but unfortunately they said the nurses are on strike so I could not get anybody to attend to me, I cannot sleep as result of the pain but what can I do now", he told Ghana News Agency.

Sighing sorrowfully with a sad expression on his face, Mr. Kyeremeh, who had his right arm in a POP left for his Dormaa Abonsarakrom home.

This is an example of the impact of the strike action by the health personnel at the at the Sunyani Regional Hospital on some patients. Initially, the GNA reporter was denied access to the premises because according to the security man on duty, they hade been instructed not to allow anybody into the premises except emergency cases. Finally when the reporter gained access to the place, the general atmosphere at the hospital could be described as dead silence as the usual hustle and bustle was absent.

The Out-Patient-Department (OPD) was empty whilst most of the wards had empty beds because the information gathered was that the doctors had discharged all the patients except those in critical conditions The student nurses who had been called to assist the doctors were standing idle and when GNA spoke to them, they said they could not get access to the hospital equipment since where the equipment were had been locked.

Contrary to the views expressed by some of the student-nurses, Dr. Joseph Edmund Sackey, Acting Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, said all the keys were kept at the hospital premises and no health worker could take any home.

Asked about the situation as at the time of filing this report, Dr. Sackey said his unit had the situation under control, adding adequate measures were put in place immediately th ey heard the other staff workers had withdrawn their services.

He explained that the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr Alhaji Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, summoned all the doctors for a meeting to review the situation and asked for support from the Nursing Training College.

Dr. Sackey said they had stopped attending to patients but would attend to those on admission and emergency cases. He said the three patients who died immediately the strike action was started could have died as a result of natural causes, adding that even when the whole staff was on duty, some patients still died.