GMA has withdrawn only out-patient cases - President

Accra, Aug. 3, GNA - Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei, President, Ghana Medical Association (GMA), on Monday said the Association has only withdrawn out-patient services.

He said emergency, caesarean, labour cases and those on admissions are been taken care of.

He told Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra that the media propaganda to make doctors look bad in the eyes of the public is very unfortunate.

Dr Adusei said the GMA has not abandon the negotiating table and would soon meet the Ministry of Health negotiating team on their conditions of service.

Their demands, he said, was a proposal to government and that it is pertinent that both sides negotiate and come to an amicable settlement.

GMA have also accused government of using their propagandists to sow seed of discord between doctors and the public instead of listening to the genuine concerns that they have put on the negotiation table.

The GMA said in an attempt to downplay the doctors' demands by putting out figures which the GMA leadership had come out to deny, the doctors are asking government communication spokesperson, to tell Ghanaians how much they receive as salaries.

Members of the GMA have embarked on a nationwide strike over government's failure to provide them with their conditions of service.

A crunch meeting with the Ministers of Employment and Labour Relations, Finance and Health and the doctors ended in a deadlock.

For this reason, Dr Frank Serebour, General Secretary of GMA, says members have activated their road map and that if negotiations on conditions of service are not completed it would lead to their resignation en masse.

Meanwhile the National Health Insurance Authority in a statement signed by Mr Selorm Adonoo, Communications Director and copied to Ghana News Agency entreated all NHIS cardholders to visit any of the private and faith-based hospitals and clinics accredited by the authority to access healthcare.

'NHIS cards are not only eligible in government establishments but can be used in the over 1,000 NHIS-credentialed private and faith-based healthcare facilities,' the statement said.

The statement noted that NHIS cardholders could also access healthcare 'at the 37 Military and Police Hospitals in Accra and the many health centres and community-based health planning and services compounds across the country.

'This arrangement is to ensure that subscribers of the NHIS continue to access health care services while the GMA's negotiations with government and strike persist.'

GNA