Throwing The Bath Water With The Baby Away…

Written by Prince Assandoh-Mensah in 2020

I happen to receive my game hunting lessons from one of the best in my village. His name alone, Kwesi Krante ( _literally means, Kwesi Grasscutter_ ) should tell you a lot.

Rats and grasscutters in their underground tunnels are usually caught with fire. You make sure you give them enough heat till they move out from them to be caught. However, in doing so, care is taken not to overheat them or burden them with excessive smoke, lest they die underground; loosing a sumptuous delicacy.

Similarly, the commandress of the nurses front may need some form of push or expression of sentiments from her members, for her to realise the actual conditions on the field, yet we don’t do it so much that we kill her zeal and confidence in dealing with matters of nurses and midwives.

Perhaps, it MAY be true that the GRNMA president proposed 35% instead of the controversial 50% of basic salary as Covid-19 emoluments as proposed by the first gentleman of the land – “let’s not forget that the presidential proposal was for only _FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS”-. Yet, does this call for the head of the nursing commandress at the slaughter house?

Is there no better way of expressing our sentiments than to roast our noble association on both the traditional and social media? And if even so, can’t we do it in a more remarkable decorum? Is it the time for other similar associations to score political points?

I do not say this to justify or agree to any untoward actions by the association against its members, but similarly, I do not agree to the display of our spoils to the masses. If care is not taken, we will kill our only hen to mark the Easter celebrations.

In every structured institution such as the GRNMA, there are laid down protocols in addressing issues, especially when members are not in agreement with leadership. In the event of this 35% brouhaha, how many nurses or midwives have been able to officially seek answers from the leadership of the association?

By the way, what has change in our line of work as health professionals? Are nurses not taking care of individuals with more dangerous infectious diseases than Covid-19? Have nurses stopped taking care of patient with TB, which is an airborne disease? What about meningitis, which is currently killing people in the northern sector?

Think about the thousands of patients we take care of with no clue of their Hepatitis B or HIV/AIDS status. Are we not highly susceptible, yet don’t we still take care of them? Far from the infectious diseases, have you thought of the number of nurses and midwives who are forcedly pushed into early retirement or grave due to spine related complications?

As I write this piece, there is Meningitis outbreak, and again health workers and their loved ones will not be spared. Day in and out, lots of nurses and midwives and their loved ones are getting hospital acquired Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, HIV/AIDS and other infections which are often resistant to a lot of antimicrobials. All these individuals go without INSURANCE and they tend to battle it out alone.

Personally, my greatest victory for this fight will be Life and Disability Insurance for all nurses and midwives and their immediate family members (spouses and children) not only against Covid-19 but all infectious diseases and other complications.

Covid-19 presidential motivation is temporal and will last for 3 months. We will be back to our very old ways after the world’s attention is no more on the health professional. Then nobody will ever care whether the nurse or the midwife dies out of Covid-19, TB or whatsoever.

I strongly believe that now comes the time we draw the attention of policy makers to the predicaments associated with our work, and advocate for policies that have lasting impact on our profession.

I will seek not to comment on the 50% across board brouhaha, but in the same voice and energy we fight for this, let us provide deserving care and support to the Covid-19 affected patients and other patients we find in our care. The same manner we demand for our pound of flesh from the government, let’s remember to delete ” _No”, ” I can’t… ” “I won’t…”_ from our list of vocabularies, especially towards Covid-19 assignment.