Manhyia Hospital: Nurses to strike on Friday over NSS director’s attack on colleague
The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association(GRNMA) has asked its members at the Manhyia District Hospital to proceed on strike on Friday, December 2, if the Ashanti Regional NSS Director is not sacked.
This is in response to verbal attacks on a nurse at the facility by the Ashanti Regional Director of the National Service Scheme, Mr Alex Opoku-Mensah.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the GRNMA, Jones Afriyie-Anto, has indicated that they will also direct all their members in the Ashanti Region to lay down their tools on Monday, December 5, if Mr Opoku-Mensah is still at post.
He added that they would further call for a nationwide strike in the coming week if the government fails to address their demands within 72 hours.
Mr Afriyie-Anto revealed that the leadership of GRNMA has officially reported the NSS Director to the police for verbal abuse.
In a statement from the leadership of GRNMA, they said, “Public Services Commission and Government, for that matter, should sack the said regional director immediately because he is not fit for the director position he holds in the Public Service.”
“We wish to state categorically that if the government does not relieve Mr Alex Poku-Mensah of his duty as Ashanti Regional Director of the National Service Scheme within 72 hours, nurses and midwives of Manhyia Hospital will be called upon to lay down their tools, followed by the whole of Ashanti Region and then it will be escalated to the whole nation.”
Meanwhile, the NSS has suspended its Ashanti Regional Director, Alex Opoku-Mensah.
A statement communicating the suspension said the decision was made on Wednesday, November 30, after an emergency meeting with Mr Opoku-Mensah.
“The management’s decision is to allow further investigation into the alleged verbal assault on a nurse on duty at the Manhyia Government Hospital in Kumasi,” a release from the NSS, signed by their acting Director of Corporate Affairs, Ambrose Entsiwah, said.
Background
Mr Opoku-Mensah was captured on tape hurling unprintable words at a female nurse at the Manhyia Hospital for undermining the authority of his daughter, a doctor who also works at the said hospital.
Running to the defence of his daughter, the director in question barged into the hospital’s surgical ward and verbally abused and threatened the nurse.
In the said audio, the angry NSS director is heard questioning the nurse’s competence and further threatening to get her fired from her post.
Meanwhile, a committee comprising representatives from the National Service Scheme, the Public Services Commission, and the Ministry of Education has been set up to investigate the matter.
The team is expected to submit its report to the NSS Management within one month.
Mr Opoku-Mensah is expected to appear before the committee on Monday, December 5, 2022.
The director who came under the limelight for the wrong reasons has since apologised for his conduct.
In a Facebook post, Mr Opoku-Mensah said the modus operandi he employed in handling the friction between his daughter, a doctor, and the nurse has never been his style.