Filth-engulfed Tamale Teaching Hospital engages private cleaners as HSWU’s strike bites

Management of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in the Northern Region has confirmed that filth has engulfed the hospital as a result of the strike by the Health Service Workers Union (HSWU).

According to management, for the past 72 hours that the HSWU declared its strike, most parts of the hospital have not been cleaned, leaving refuse all over the hospital.

“Usually, the wards and theatres get cleaned,” the Head of Corporate Affairs at the Hospital, Misbawu Mohammed, told 3FM Sunrise‘s host Alfred Ocansey on Thursday.

“It is true to some extent because it’s a human institution. We are dealing with people and they generate some form of waste.”

Mr. Mohammed explained that “for the past 48-hours, no thorough cleaning has been done and so the waste that has been generated has scattered”.

“We never thought this strike would go beyond 24 hours. The information we had was that they [HSWU] needed some engagements with the government but unfortunately, it ended inconclusively.”

Mr. Mohammed said in the meantime, the hospital has contracted some private people to clean the hospital and these would be paid from the hospital’s internally generated funds until the health workers call off the strike.

“We have hired some people to help us clean them. We are paying them from our internally generated funds and they have requested them to resume duty. We have taken steps to ensure that this does not become a nuisance to the hospital and as we speak, workers are on-site to ensure the place is clean.”

He assured me that the place would be cleaned by 12pm Thursday to restore the hospital back to its normal cleanliness.

“It is not the case that it is everywhere and by midday today, the refuse would be collected.”

The General Secretary of the Health Service Workers Union, Franklin Owusu Ansah, giving an update on what transpired with their intended meeting with the Employment and Labour Ministry explained that “the signing of the memorandum of understanding did not happen. There was no meeting [on Wednesday, October 27]”.

He said, “this afternoon, there is going to be some caucus meeting with the Ministry and that is what we are waiting for”.