The Nursing and Midwifery Council (N&MC) of Ghana is in a crunch meeting to decide whether or not to reduce the fees for nurses and midwives who need their credentials verified.

This comes after the government announced a huge increase in the fees for foreign verification fees for nurses and midwives.

The new cost of GH₵3,000 represents a 445.5% increment in the license verification fee imposed on nurses and midwives compared to the previous fee of GH₵550.

Calls for the Health Ministry and the Nurses and Midwives Council to review the cost have been futile.

Read also: Nurses to drape health facilities in red, withdraw out-patient services over verification fee increment

However, the unhappy nurses have protested against the new fees by draping health facilities in red while they put on red head and armbands to register their discontent with the hiked fees.

The protest which began on Friday, March 22 is scheduled to end on Wednesday, March 27 with a press conference to announce consequential withdrawal of outpatient department services from March 28 to April 2, 2024.

Background The National Council of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has served its members with notice of an impending industrial strike action.

The Council explained that the strike action is part of a series of activities aimed at drumming home the demand for a review of the 445.5% increment in the license verification fee imposed on nurses and midwives.

Nurses and midwives were therefore obligated to pay GHȼ3,000.00 to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana for the verification of licenses, a development the Association was unhappy about.

A communique signed by the President of the GRNMA, Mrs. Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, and copied to Myjoyonline.com instructed members of the association at all health facilities to wear red bands from March 22 to March 27, 2024.

It also indicated that a major press conference would be held on 27th March 2024 to engage the media on the subject matter and other related issues.

This would be followed by an indefinite strike action with the withdrawal of services at the outpatient departments of health facilities across the country from the 28th of March to the 2nd of April 2024.