The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey was left in awe when suspected land guards abruptly ended a meeting he was having with management and workers of Pangtang Psychiatric Hospital on Monday July 5, 2021.
The Deputy Minister and other government officials were at the Health Facility with the objective of persuading the striking nurses to return to work.
It would be recalled that Health workers at the Pantang Hospital in Accra on Monday, June 28, 2021, poured onto the streets to register their displeasure over the alleged encroachment of the hospital’s lands as well as attacks being suffered in the hands of people they suspected are land guards.
For the past seven years, managers of the mental health facility have called on the government to fence the facility to prevent private individuals from encroaching on their property, but their plea has not yielded results. The demonstrating workers numbering about 100 say their lives are at risk, hence their decision to embark on a strike until the hospital is fenced.
In addition, Dr. Frank Baning, the hospital’s medical director, threatened to close the institution on Thursday, July 1 if the government did not take action to get the nurses back to work.
In order to avert closure of the facility as threatened by, Dr. Frank Baning, government scheduled a meeting with the workers to find resolution to their issues.
But before the meeting chaired by the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey could make headway, a group of young men suspected to be land guards, budged into the venue of the meeting to bring it to abrupt end.
