<<Print>>The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Serebuor has revealed that the members of the GMA are not afraid to lose their salaries over the period of the strike. The Ministry of Health has ordered the doctors to return to work by Thursday August 20, 2015 or forfeit their salaries for the period of their strike.
According to Dr. Serebuor, the group will not call off the strike until their demands are met,
“As for the salaries, we the doctors have stated very clearly we are not afraid of non-payment of salaries and we can even go for a year without them, and so nobody should think that we are afraid, we are resolute on that matter,” he said.
Dr. Frank Serebuor who was speaking on Eyewitness News also compared the benefits of Cuban doctors get from government saying Ghanaian doctors are treated unfairly.
“Why is it that the Ghanaian is discriminated against, how come you bring in somebody from somewhere else to come and do the same work and that you provide them with conditions of service and all the things that we listed, and yet when you engage the Ghanaians you maltreat them?” he queried.
The GMA in a statement issued on Wednesday urged members of the association to continue with the strike despite a directive from the health minister, Alex Segbefia that they should return to work by Thursday.
He further observed that the association has been sidelined in the processes involved in the recruitment of Cuban trained doctors.
“Unfortunately the medical and dental council has never being able to control the situation as far as the Cuban doctors are concerned, any other doctor who comes into this country you will have to go through a certain process, what government usually does is to short circuit the system without recourse to the medical and dental council, that aspect of the law has never been enforced by the GMA as far as the issue with the Cuban trained doctors,” he said.
Meanwhile the GMA has denied reports of a breakaway in the front of the party,
“There is no such association that has been formed, there is no such rival group, we have only one GMA. The issue of quasi government hospitals cannot be confused with the matter and so I don’t think we should even marry the two at all,” he stated.
The GMA is on strike over demands for codified terms of condition of service.
The strike also forms part of a roadmap to a decision to resign in bloc if the government fails to address their concerns.
The strike has led to the suspension of some medical services including attending to Out Patient Departments and some emergency care.
The health Minister also says plans are underway for 177 Cuban doctors to be flown into the country to help ease the burden on the doctors working in government hospitals still in operation.