We ousted Mahama for you but you’re treating us ‘appallingly’ – Nurses to Akufo-Addo
Some angry nurses and midwives on rotation have described as “appalling”, the failure of the Akufo-Addo government to pay them their allowance which has been in arrears for seven months.
“We feel very bad because we were not expecting this government to do that to us”, a member of the Coalition of Rotation Nurses and Midwives told Maxwell Attah in an interview on Monday, 28 October 2019 after a press conference addressed by the leadership of the group in Kumasi on the matter.
“Nana Addo coming into power was basically based on us nurses because of the way Mahama was treating us with the allowance, so, we gathered together to bring Nana Addo to power, so, we are not expecting this government to even treat us like this”, the aggrieved nurse said, adding: “It’s so appalling, so, we are begging him to pay us our money before the worst happens”.
Asked to explain what she meant by that, the lady nurse, who only gave her name as Constance said: “The worst is: we can start a demonstration or we can go on strike, and you know if we don’t go to work what will happen to the clients at the ward?”
“So, we beg him [Akufo-Addo] to do something about it for us. It’s really not giving us the morale to work because when you are working with a client, you have to think of how to get money to come to work the next day, if you don’t come to work, too, your superiors will not take it lightly. That’s why we are really angry and we’re begging him to give us our money”, she appealed.
Just last month, the coalition appealed to the government to pay them their six months’ allowance arrears.
The group, made up of newly-trained nurses and midwives, said since they started their mandatory national service on 8 April 2019, they have never received any allowance.
“We’ve worked wholeheartedly for the nation for six months (April, May, June, July, August, September) without receiving a penny of the national service allowance which is rightfully due us.
“Upon several measures and approaches taken by this coalition, the government seems to have turned deaf ears to our concerns. We are now in our sixth month and no significant step or process has commenced for us to get the hope of receiving our allowances for this month and the past months.
The nurses and midwives complained: “We’re really suffering at our various service stations and, so, some actions must be hurriedly carried out to enable us to receive our allowances that is due us for sound and effective service to the nation”.