Nurses at the Maternity and Obstetrics/Gynaecology (O/G) Department of the Cape Coast Metro Hospital (CCMH) are appealing to management of the facility to pay more attention to the security of staff.
In a letter addressed to management of the hospital, the concerned nurses of the CCMH lamented the numerous attacks staff had suffered from robbers and hoodlums who rob them off their valuables and injure them in the process.
According to the nurses, staff who are on night duty are usually left at the mercy of these criminals as there were no security measures in place to protect them.
The absence of street lights at the facility especially at night leaves much to be desired. The nurses intimated that criminals take advantage of the poor lighting system and the absence of security personnel at the facility to attack them at any given opportunity.
In the wake of these attacks, the concerned staff threatened to abandon, especially night shifts, if management of the facility fail to provide security during the night.
They also appealed to management to allow the facility’s vehicle to pick nurses on night duty and send those who come for afternoon shifts home after their shifts end.
“We want the hospital car to pick us for night duty and send home those who come for afternoon duty,” some of them who spoke on condition of anonymity to our affiliate TV station in Cape Coast-ATV –appealed.
In the letter sighted by ATV, the concerned nurses indicated that if these requests were not met by management, the night shifts will not only be abandoned but the afternoon shifts will also not travel beyond 6pm.
“…If our requests are not addressed we cannot continue the night shift and the afternoon shift will also end at 6:00pm”, the letter warned.
A member of the concerned staff who spoke to our reporter on strict condition of anonymity said the most recent attack was happened on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 where a nurse was robbed of her hand bag which contained her mobile phone, an amount of GHS150 and other personal belongings.
“She was reporting for duty when two men on a motorbike approached her for direction to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (Interberton). In an attempt to assist them, they pounced on her, beat her and made away with her hand bag which contained some personal items as well as her mobile phone and GHS150.00”, the concerned nurse narrated.
She also told our correspondent that staff of the CCMH feel unsafe due to the numerous attacks they have suffered and management’s seemingly unconcerned posture.
“We are not safe at all and management has done virtually nothing to salvage the situation. One management member once told me that the hospital can only contribute a minute percentage to providing security since other stakeholders have roles to play too.”
Story: From Philemon Buabeng, Cape Coast Central Region
