Former Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Akwasi Osei is justifying the strike by nurses at the facility.
Speaking on 3FM’s Sunrise morning Show, Dr. Akwasi Osei believes government has not done enough about the plight of the striking nurses.
“I appreciate the ministry’s own efforts but what we need is results, we were not seeing results; money is not coming in. The nurses have a good case. If you’re working in an environment where your life is at risk because a patient can slap and harm you because they have not eaten and are aggressive, have relapsed because there is no drug, it makes it a very bad situation”.
Dr. Akwasi Osei maintained that the only way to rectify the issue is to have an effective law in place to ensure those mandated to work do so.
“We have always been engaging in fire fighting; we wait until the last minute, we cry and get some crumbs. That has been the pattern, that is why we insist on a law which will get us all to sit up and ensure that those mandated to work will do so.
“However the law is only effective when it’s implemented. That is why we need the Legislative Instrument, until we get that in place, we’re going nowhere”.
Commenting on the efforts by 3FM to raise funds for the Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Akwasi Osei slammed society for its lack of interest and priority.
“But if you were raising funds for a beauty pageant or soccer event, we would have realized over GHc300,000.
“What this means is that we should equally put some premium on mental health; it’s a wakeup call that should make us all feel convicted because we are guilty.”
The PRO of the Ministry of Health, Tony Goodman had asked that procurement of logistics should be provided by the authority.
But in a sharp rebuttal, Dr. Osei questions where the money would come from, wondering if the PRO wants the facility to engage in an illegality.
“Mental health care is supposed to be free by law and policy. If it’s free what it means is that government must give money for the service to be accessed. What it implies is that the hospital must charge patients for the service but that is engaging in an illegality. It is the fee and charges that deter patients to access the service and they end up on the streets,” he added emphatically that issue poses a national security threat.
Psychiatric nurses embarked on a strike effective today, October 31. In a statement signed by Chairperson of the Psychiatric Nurses group, Jamilatu Hussein, the nurses say their action is to prevent exposing their lives to danger in the course of their duties.
“Following several fruitless attempts by the leadership of the nurses to get lasting solution to the problems that has persisted for years, exposing patients and staff to high risk of infection, and which has become major source of aggression towards staff and other patients, we have been compelled to put our safety above all topics”.
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