Healthcare workers dressed in red bands filled Accra’s streets Thursday, demanding payment for months of work without pay in a dispute that threatens to worsen Ghana’s already strained public health system.
The Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives staged the protest on October 2, 2025, with nearly 7,000 members who have been working without salaries for close to 10 months. The march began at Efua Sutherland Children’s Park and ended at the Finance and Health Ministries, where demonstrators delivered petitions demanding urgent intervention.
Stephen Kwadwo Takyiah, the coalition’s convenor, described the frustration of professionals who went through official recruitment processes only to find themselves trapped in bureaucratic limbo.
“We are citizens, trained as professional nurses and midwives —We graduated in 2020, completed our rotations, and waited at home for three years. In July 2024, the Ministry of Health announced it had secured financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance for our employment, but here we are,’ he poured out his frustrations at the protest.
The Ministry of Health announced in late July 2024 that the Ministry of Finance had granted financial clearance to recruit over 15,000 nurses and midwives. Applications opened shortly after, and postings went out by October 2024. Most recruits reported for duty in December.
But the payment system hasn’t kept pace. According to the coalition, about 13,000 recruits took up their postings by December 2024, yet only 6,500 had received any salary by April 2025—leaving nearly half the workforce unpaid.
“This is unfair and unsustainable,” Takyiah lamented. “We are working in hospitals and clinics across the country, saving lives, yet we cannot even afford transport fares to work.”
The salary crisis isn’t isolated. In June 2025, rotational nurses and midwives went on strike over 12 months of unpaid allowances, withdrawing out-patient services nationwide before escalating to a complete service withdrawal. That dispute took government intervention to resolve.
This latest protest adds another layer to Ghana’s ongoing struggles with public sector compensation. The coalition warned that continued delays undermine healthcare delivery as unpaid staff struggle with mounting financial stress.
“Our patience has run out,” the group stated in its petition. “If this continues, it will cripple health services across the country.”
The government has not yet responded publicly to Thursday’s demonstration. Whether authorities can resolve the payment issues before healthcare workers lose patience entirely remains uncertain—particularly with similar protests having erupted repeatedly throughout 2025.
The coalition says it continue to hit the streets if the impasse isn’t resolved quickly.
By Nelson Ayivor