Across the country, a troubling trend is emerging — patients are being stranded due to the strike declared by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA).
A deep sense of despair now hangs over Ghana’s public hospitals as the nationwide strike by nurses and midwives enters its critical phase, grinding basic healthcare delivery to a near halt.
Nurses have abandoned their posts, leaving patients stranded over in the wards and consultation rooms.
Across the country, the bustling corridors of health facilities — once filled with the hum of service and care — have become scenes of silent suffering, overcrowded waiting areas, and abandoned hospital wards.
These grim visuals now tell the tale of a country battling not just disease, but systemic collapse.
The people are waiting. The hospitals are bleeding. And the nurses —the nation’s caregivers — are crying for justice.
A grim future if action is not taken
The strike is not merely a protest; it is a desperate cry from the core of Ghana’s healthcare system.
With the absence of nurses, the heartbeat of hospitals, patient care is collapsing.
Preventable deaths loom. Routine services have vanished. And the nation watches, helpless.
The once orderly Outpatient Departments (OPD) of health facilities are now overflowing with rows of visibly distressed patients — some clutching children, others elderly and frail — waiting for hours in stiff-backed plastic chairs, hoping to be seen by a medical professional. Many never are.
Doctors, already overburdened, are now seen scrambling to take vital signs — a duty typically performed by the absent nurses. House officers — fresh graduates still finding their footing — are being thrust into overwhelming caseloads far beyond their training or capacity.
Maternity wards in crisis
In maternity wards across the country, women in labour cry out for assistance.
With midwives on strike, some deliveries are being managed by hurried doctors and non-specialist staff.
The risk to mothers and newborns has surged alarmingly. Hospitals have been forced to scale back operations to the barest minimum, with only emergency cases and patients already admitted receiving attention — and even that, skeletal.
Critical services suspended, lives in limbo
Child health services, special clinics, public health campaigns, and immunisation drives have all been suspended.
Some outpatient departments report wait times stretching not into hours but into days, as queues expand.
Many visibly distraught patients sit waiting without assistance.
Many patients worn down by frustration and pain, unable to endure the uncertainty and lack of care, give up and quietly exit the premises
Some may not make it home.
The breaking point
Total withdrawal of services is schedule to begin today.
As Ghana teeters on the precipice of a full-scale health catastrophe, the message from patients, nurses, and even doctors is unmistakably clear: enough is enough.
If urgent steps are not taken, this crisis could spiral into a national tragedy, remembered not just as a failure of policy, but as a moral failure — a failure of compassion.
The right to health is not a privilege. It is a fundamental human right.
In a country where so many depend on public health services to survive, the time to act is now — not tomorrow, not next week. Every minute lost in political wrangling is a life that might never be saved.
Ghana cannot afford to sacrifice its future on the altar of bureaucratic inertia.
GRNMA demands justice and dignity
At the heart of this healthcare breakdown is the industrial action declared by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA).
Their grievance? A broken promise — the government’s delay in implementing the Collective Agreement signed in May 2024, aimed at improving the working conditions and welfare of Ghana’s overburdened nurses and midwives.
But while negotiations and political finger-pointing drag on, it is the sick — those whose lives hang in the balance — who continue to pay the steepest price.
In a strongly-worded communiqué, the GRNMA defended the strike, citing frustration over “intimidation, divisive and false narratives” aimed at undermining their cause.
The Association insists it has exhausted all diplomatic channels and is acting in the best interest of the profession — and the patients they serve.
“It’s not just about salaries,” said Perpetual Osei, a senior midwife. “It’s about being treated with dignity. We work 12-hour shifts in overstretched facilities, often without adequate equipment or support. We are tired — emotionally, physically, and financially.”
The Association is demanding urgent approval and implementation of the Collective Agreement by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, warning that OPD and Emergency Services could also be withdrawn entirely if negotiations stall further.
Interns and rotation nurses caught in the crossfire
As the mainstay of the healthcare workforce withdraws, confusion and anxiety reign among the ranks of rotational and trainee nurses.
In an attempt to stem the bleeding, the Ministry of Health directed all interns and rotation nurses to remain at post.
But the Rotational Nurses and Midwives Association (RNMA) has strongly pushed back, warning its members not to engage in unsupervised work.
In a joint communiqué signed by RNMA President Ebenezer Boateng and General Secretary Mavis Akoto Frimpong, the group cited Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards, which prohibit unsupervised clinical practice.
“Remaining at post without proper supervision is a direct violation of professional standards,” the statement said. “It could expose interns to legal consequences and professional ruin.”
RNMA emphasised that interns should not be pressured to act without oversight, stating: “Being present at post without a license or supervisor, while clients may be suffering, exposes you to potential legal consequences. It is crucial to understand that such actions, though well-intentioned, could place your career and future at risk.”
Call for urgent parliamentary intervention
With a looming deadline for a possible total shutdown of all nursing and midwifery services today, the GRNMA has called on Parliament to intervene and pressure the Ministries to honour their obligations.
“What else must we do?” one nurse asked rhetorically on social media.
“Do we wait until babies start dying in delivery wards and our elderly collapse in hospital queues before something is done?”
The Ministry of Health has urged striking nurses to return to work while negotiations continue, warning that the prolonged industrial action could collapse Ghana’s already fragile healthcare system.
The cost of delay: Lives at risk
This is not just a labour dispute. It is a national emergency. Every hour lost, every patient unattended, every ward left unmanned deepens the toll.
This is a moment of reckoning — not only for the government and its institutions, but for a nation that must decide if it truly values the people who sustain it.
The nurses are not asking for luxury — they are asking for dignity, justice, and the tools to save lives.
