Three days after a sit-down strike, staff and student nurses of Pantang Psychiatric Hospital in the Greater Accra Region yesterday embarked on a demonstration to demand the occupied portions of lands by encroachers belonging to the hospital.
After years of unfettered encroachment on lands belonging to the Psychiatric Hospital, the nurses resolved that “enough is enough.”
And this they showed by embarking on a demonstration to register their displeasure against developments on their lands.
Speaking to a cross-section of journalists shortly after presenting a petition to the Minister of Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang Manu, in Accra, Head of Staff at the hospital, Mr. Elvis Akuamoah, expressed displeasure about how encroachers were fast taking over lands earmarked for development at the hospital.
He maintained that they will not return to their posts until their demands were met.
“Not even the Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority (MHA), Dr. Akwasi Osei, or the leadership of the hospital can persuade us to return to our posts,” he stressed.
Accompanying them to the Ministry of Health were the CEO of MHA, Director of Pantang Hospital, Dr. Frank Biney, and some health directors.
Meanwhile, as of the time of going to press yesterday, it had emerged that the striking nurses and staff of the Pantang Hospital had resolved to return to work.
This, Today learnt, followed the intervention of the Health Minister, Mr. Agyemang Manu.
According to reports, the minister was able to reach a consensus with the private developer to temporarily halt building activities to enable a solution to be found to the issue.
Early this week, workers of the hospital began series of industrial actions in protest over the takeover of their lands by some private developers.
As part of the actions, they withdrew services to mental health patients and stayed away from the facility.
The hospital houses over 2,000 patients, staff members and other hospital workers.
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