Patients Rush To 37, Police Hospitals

THE Police and 37 Military Hospitals have been flooded by patients due to the strike action being embarked upon by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in public hospitals.

While the Out-Patient Departments (OPD) of the public hospitals remain empty due to the strike, the influx of patients to the two hospitals has taken a toll on health experts working at the facilities.

The GMA embarked on the strike five days ago, saying the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) was not showing evidence of migrating members onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), and that if their request was not met, the strike would continue.

Speaking on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer of the Police Hospital, DSP Juliana Obeng, said though there had been an increase in the number of patients at the hospital, the situation was under control but might change if the strike action continued.

Though the situation could be bad, she said measures had been put in place to contain it.

At the 37 Military Hospital, doctors were however attending to patients though they would not comment on the situation, except to say they were working.

The situation at the La General Hospital was no different from the other public hospitals, while at the Ridge Hospital, OPD services had also been withdrawn.

The GMA, in a joint statement signed by Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, President of the Association and Dr Frank Serebour, Deputy General Secretary of the Association, on October 7, said: 'The GMA does not foresee their grievances being met by the close of business on Friday, October 7, and has therefore instructed all doctors to stop work and hold themselves in readiness for further instructions'.

The association is protesting about distortions in the grading structures of the SSSS, issues of unscientific determination of market premium and inducement by the FWSC.

It also complained about the inability of the FWSC to provide unequivocal evidence of the migration of doctors onto the SSSS, and the ambiguous stance of the SSSS Secretariat on the positions of District Directors of Health Services and Medical Superintendents.

Calls from President Mills and other civil society groups on the GMA to return to work have yielded no result as the doctors say they would remain resolute until their demand for migration onto the SSSS by the FWSC was met.

The association has been criticized for the strike action, while some of its leaders have been accused of misleading their members but Dr Serebour insisted the association was justified in embarking on the strike.

'We will achieve exactly what we set out to,' he said.

 By Henrietta Abayie