Ridge Hospital doctors protest at take-over by military

Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - Doctors at Ridge Hospital on Thursday suggested to the ministry of Health to equip existing hospitals with logistics and staff to handle emergencies and disaster cases rather than handing them over to the military and Police.

Speaking to the GNA in an interview in Accra, Dr Michael Quaye, an Anaesthetic at the hospital, described reasons behind the idea of government to hand over Ridge Hospital, La and Mamprobi Polyclincs to the military and police "baseless."

He said though they were informed "in a discourteous manner," we think that emergency and disaster units should be in all the regions and not only in Accra. "We at Ridge were notified only the night before the sector minister, heads of the Military Hospital and the Ministry of Defence came on inspection..."

Dr Quaye stressed that health workers are not strike-happy because in the end it is their relatives who will suffer. "All we need is good and attractive remuneration and adequate logistics to motivate the staff to give of their best."

He said the doctors do not have any plan of laying down their tools because of this issue as is being speculated. "Our aim is to fight for better conditions of service for all health workers." On Tuesday, doctors of Ridge Hospital met to discuss the issue and objected to the plan.