We were not consulted on strike - Doctor

Cape Coast, Sept 5, GNA - The Director of the Central Regional Hospital, Dr Darius Osei-Kofi, on Monday said he and his counterparts in Cape Coast, were not given "any message" by the National Executive of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to go on strike. We are therefore still at post, Dr Osei-Kofi said, adding that, they would not rely on a "television announcement or a press conference" to lay down their tools.

He said that they were still waiting for directives from the GMA. Dr Osei-Kofi, stated these, when the GNA visited the Hospital to ascertain the situation following the strike action announced by the GMA last week, to press home demands for the payment of their arrears of the Additional Hours Duty Allowance (AHDA), following the increase in their salaries.

He pointed out that as much as it was fighting for the cause of Doctors, the GMA should consult them before taking such actions and stated that, "they make the work of hospital administrators unbearable. We just wake up to hear that Doctors are on strike without any consultation".

The GNA found out at the hospital that many of the Doctors were in their consulting rooms and the wards attending to patients. Dr Osei-Kofi told the GNA that the Hospital, "has its own internal mechanism of motivating Doctors to work, and the Doctors have been given the needed motivation and there is no need for them to go on strike".

He explained that the Hospital did not have any problem in attending to patients because many of the Doctors were expatriates. Unlike Korle-Bu, the hospital has few Junior Doctors who cannot not influence the system in any way, he stated. Dr Kofi Asante, one of the Medical Officers, said they were working and doing their best for "mother Ghana" by attending to patients.

He said, however that, the government should endeavour to pay Doctors what was their due, adding that, if they were MPs would the government not have found money to pay them.

At the Cape Coast District Hospital, Mr Kwabena Gyamfi, Hospital Administrator, said the facility had only two Doctors who were at post. He also said the Hospital had not received any "official letter" from the GMA, asking Doctors to stay away from work. Dr Sampson Dadzie, Medical Superintendent in-charge, who was attending to patients, said they were waiting for directives from the local division of the GMA.