Medical doctors operating in Ghana’s public hospitals announced a
nationwide strike on Thursday demanding better conditions of service.
The doctors are also threatening a mass resignation if the issues are not resolved by government amicably after a week.
The Ghana Medical Association said the doctors will start withdrawing
their services from the Out-Patient Department for a week to press for
the finalisation of the conditions of service.
“As we speak now, the GMA is on strike. We can now go home and sleep
and declare ourselves unemployed,” GMA General Secretary Frank Serebuor
told media.
The doctors also indicated they might resign en mass if the situation
about their condition of service is not worked on as a matter of
urgency.
According to the GMA, doctors had worked in Ghana over the years
without a single document that described their conditions of service.
They
therefore embarked on negotiations with government to rectify the
situation with a June 28 deadline which was extended to July 28.
Although Labor Minister Haruna Iddrisu had said the doctors had
resolved to continue working while negotiations lingered, Serebuor said
there was a roadmap for the strike action by doctors.
“The doctors did well to extend their ‘deadline’ for conclusion of
the discussions, and I guess they do realize that in reality the issues
go beyond just a one-day meeting,” a presidential staff explained on his
social media platform.
According to him, the doctors wanted an increase in their On-Call
Duty allowance from 10 percent of basic salary to 20 percent of basic
salary, and allowance for accommodation from 20 percent to 40 percent of
basic salary as well as fuel for House Officers from 30 gallons to 80
gallons per month.
The GMA is also demanding 90 gallons of fuel for PMO Specialists in a
month; 100 gallons of fuel for Senior Specialist consultants in a month
and an across the board monthly clothing allowance, and 30 percent of
basic salary.
The Presidential staffer said the GMA is also demanding other conditions be instituted in addition to their salaries.
Government of Ghana has been working to cut down on the public sector
wage bill which has been one of the major causes of recent fiscal
slippages.
Junior doctors were also on strike for a week until Wednesday over unpaid allowances for nine months.
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