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14.10.2011 Editorial

Life Saving More Important Than Silver And Gold

By Daily Graphic - Daily Graphic
Life Saving More Important Than Silver And Gold
14.10.2011 LISTEN

IT has been close to a week since the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) ordered its members to down their tools in all the nation’s public hospitals.

While there has been a substantial degree of compliance with the GMA’s order in most public hospitals across the country, a good number of doctors in hospitals in the Northern, Upper East and Volta regions have remained at post to continue their life-saving mission.

Reactions to the GMA’s action have, at best, been mixed. While most people agree that the various stakeholders in the health delivery system, including the doctors themselves, officials of the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Ministry of Finance, etc must work together to expedite action on the migration of doctors onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) which is their main contention, there is widespread agreement by the populace that the strike is unwarranted, untenable and counter-productive.

For the huge multitude of people who subscribe to this position, life is so precious, sacrosanct and, indeed sacred, that it must not be compromised on the altar of the politics of power and influence peddling, held hostage and sacrificed on account of stalled negotiations.

It is not for nothing that since the supreme sacrifice performed and enunciated by the legendary Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, who held life to be more sacred than anything else, doctors, before they qualify and prepare to practise, are enjoined to swear the Hippocratic Oath to give similar meaning and urgency to the protection of and promotion of life.

Is it not a cardinal principle of the Hippocratic Oath to channel energies into saving lives first before turning around to ask for what reward there is for the effort?

Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that the life-saving exploits of the doctor cannot be fully measured, let alone rewarded, and, therefore, what the doctors get for saving life in most societies is what is appreciated, affordable and available.

Again, what has become of the sanctity and sacredness of life if, as a result of the contest for material wealth by the doctor, the sick are abandoned to die in neglect as a result of a strike?

What becomes of the fundamental human rights of patients who die from neglect as a result of doctors’ strike, especially so if the disputes is later resolved and the doctors are paid all they ask for or are due? Would it be justifiable, then, to have lost those lives which, in any case, cannot be restored to what they deserve?

Again, has it not been said often that doctors, because of what contributions our society has made to train and equip them, have always found the need, especially in critical times, to continue the sacrifice in the supreme interest of people and in the belief and satisfaction that they have been of immense benefit to the less fortunate and privileged in society?

Additionally, we believe that though doctors are a much respected and privileged section of society, they are like anyone else, nevertheless, subject to the laws of the land. Given that they have not exhausted avenues for resolving their grievances, the legal basis of their strike is at best doubtful.

It is on account of these and other factors that we respectfully request of the GMA to call off its strike immediately and get our doctors back to work.

Already, tension is mounting among many, with the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, a civil society organisation, branding the action as illegal and threatening to drag the GMA to court (see front page).

We believe that some of the grievances of the doctors may be legitimate and, therefore, worth acting upon. This is why the negotiation table, and not the recourse to strike, is the most appropriate way forward in these circumstances.

Let the GMA heed to the cries of the people, so that together we all join hands to seek the progress of all, including doctors.

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