A former Presidential aspirant of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, has told XYZ News the lifestyle of Ghanaian politicians is to blame for the protracted strike by public doctors.
The former Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said: “If you are in a nation and you have the impression that we are all tightening our belts and we all want to help the nation and we are all sacrificing then it’s easier to talk to people [Doctors]…but I find it difficult talking to them because they say ‘look at these people’ [politicians], the money that they are taking, look at what these people are doing and so on and so forth”.
“They have good reasons for going on strike,” he said, although he added that: “Personally I don’t like total strike”.
The world-renowned Ghanaian heart surgeon put the problem down to what he referred to as the failure of the government to fulfill its side of the bargain.
“…I think they came to some understanding with the government and so on; and people are not honouring their part of the bargain and that is why these things are all happening; so what I’m saying is that if we enter into negotiations, let us be sure that we are serious with what we are doing and that we all accept our part of the bargain and act accordingly to avoid all these things”.
The doctors have been on strike for three weeks.
They are demanding payment of their market premium arrears as well as conversion difference allowances.
They also want anomalies in their pension contributions corrected.
The leadership of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has been engrossed in a game of recriminations with the government over the impasse.
Aggressive rhetoric from each side infuriated some labour experts including Senyo Adjabeng and Abraham Koomson to suggest the dismissal of the over 1000 public sector doctors, albeit as a last resort.
Prof Frimpong Boateng, who, some six years ago, dismissed dozens of striking junior doctors at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital while he was CEO, however told XYZ News taking similar action against the members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) could have disastrous consequences for the nation’s health delivery system.
He said: “GMA is a very reputable organisation with senior doctors who are taking serious decisions…some of them will be very happy if they are sacked then they will run away and do other things but I don’t think we should talk about sacking doctors”.
