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The government of Ghana has responded sharply to fast spreading rumours making rounds that it intends to fire the Minister of Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, following doctors� strike at the various public health institutions. The minister is on a 10-day leave of absence to attend to his personal health at a time when the strike is worsening and prompting public speculations that the government is preparing the grounds to give him the marching orders. However, a deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has told Citi News there is no iota of truth in the news, adding that the health minister is expected to be at post on Friday. �It is not true. We have received a lot of media enquiries about all kinds of rumours making rounds with some saying he was forced to proceed on leave,� Ablakwa said. �All of these are not true. � �The records are available; when he applied for leave, the grounds he himself stated wanting the leave and when he got the response from the presidency, all of these are available for the public to check,� he stated. The government on Monday issued a statement clarifying circumstances under which the minister took the short sabbatical. The Information Minister, Hon. John Tia Akologu disclosed that President John Atta Mills granted the health minister his request for leave on October 11, 2011 purely on medical grounds.