When Sensitive Doctors Combat A Dead-goat, The Poor Citizens Suffer

I wouldn’t have poked my nose into this, because I believe in the ‘di wofie asem’ (mind your own business) slogan, but as I was travelling today, it got to a point our driver drove a bit unprofessionally. I didn’t know where the thought of ‘what if we had an accident now’ came from; well, I tried to push it away but it kept resurfacing. I’m now glad it did, because it has reminded me of this national crisis my country is currently struggling with – the strike of the medical doctors. I treated this issue as a non-issue for some weeks now but the thought of seeing me being rushed to a hospital only to meet the absence of the doctors was so real this morning. This mythical encounter has pushed me to also have my say in this matter (I actually wrote the major part of this article in the car). I guess it’s true afterall – “when you learn how to die, then you learn how to live.”

How did we even get here in the first place? Are the lost lives worth it? Are those patients and their family members worth these daily frustrations? And it’s really disheartening to realise we are here today because of a mere conditions of service. Is it true that the doctors have been working all these while without their conditions of service fully stated? I stand to be corrected but I believe the first thing every employee must demand from his employer is his conditions of service. So how come both the government and the doctors have been silenced on this all these years? I think it’s long overdue for the two parties to agree on a condition of service so every doctor who would be employed by the government in the future can know his conditions of service prior to his appointment, and any potential employee (doctor) who doesn’t agree on these conditions decides otherwise.

My concern then is what’s stopping the government and the doctors from going back to the bargaining table? Is it that the government has exploited the sensitive nature of the doctors for far too long and now the doctors also want to show the politician their worth? Or have the doctors traded their humanness and love, which are the core driving forces of their profession for the dead goat syndrome? Are the sufferings and wailings of the poor Ghanaian voters who can’t afford private hospitals or meet their health needs abroad not loud enough to awaken and induce our dead-goat leaders with some dose of sensitivity? Some people are blaming the doctors for coming up with such an outrageous request. But let me get something right, those requests are proposed and not imposed, aren’t they? The doctors know they would surely hear the ‘reduce am small’ counter-proposal from government during the bargaining process. Or is it not what goes on in a typical Ghanaian market? It’s only wise you hype your price. As for the timing of their demand, a smart kid knows when to demand something from his parents, I lie?

I’ve seen this as a mere game of ‘show me your worth, superiority and importance’ on the part of both the government and the doctors. It is said when two elephants fight it’s the ground that suffers. The poor Ghanaians are the ones feeling the heat of this fight. The truth is every profession is equally important. The difference is only seen when you are doing yours for the passion you have for it or for the money. I guess when our president has gone beyond the limits of humanness and brought this unassuming dead goat syndrome into our dear country, he probably didn’t realise this disease is as infectious and contagious as the deadly Ebola until the whole medical fraternity has been infected with this syndrome which rob them of their humanness, sensitivity and love for the sick, which has brought us to where we are with this strike.

Are the Cuban doctors the solution? Who pays for their tickets, accommodation, security, etc? Would their services be for free? If not, is it the little money we’ve borrowed that we would waste on these Cuban doctors instead of settling this issue with our own doctors once and for all? Where lies our priorities as a nation. How long shall we take to free ourselves from this slavery and dependency mentality?

This matter is as urgent as and needs to be given the urgent attention given the June 3 disaster. What could be more disastrous than the inner fire of self pity and hopelessness that burns in the hearts and minds of the patients in the various hospitals now? Could the pains of the June 3 be compared to the emotional pains those helpless souls in the hospital beds are feeling? Can it be compared to the regret of not having the strength and the choice to run for and fight for their own lives before the fire fueled by the ‘fight’ between our once sensitive doctors who are now being infected with the dead goat syndrome and our government who refuses to let some dose of ‘sensitivity and humanness’ cure them from their dead goat syndrome catch up with them? What about the flood of fear that engulfs we the healthy ones, upon realising we are but potential patients who could be rushed to the hospitals at any moment only to be greeted by a ‘team of clueless nurses’ who would remind us of the absence of their bosses, the doctors?

Hmmm, the once busy and crowded O.P.Ds are now as lifeless as the cemetery, perhaps, depicting how lifeless the graves seem to those innocent souls who had been handed to their early graves as a result of the strike. Or is it reminding us, the livings of how our end would be should this strike continues?

On behalf of the poor farmers who feed the nation; the police and the armed forces who protect and defend our nation day and night, the teachers who educate our nation, the drivers who move and connect the nation, the poor kayayees who carry the nation, the old people who built the nation and are the embodiment of the rich histories of the land, the children who are the future and hope of Ghana and on behalf of the poor voters, I plead with the doctors and the government to drop their egos and end this fight of importance and return to the bargaining table.

But as we wait, I pray God protects those of us who are well today from any impending sickness and for those who are in the hospitals, may the angels of the Lord minister your healings to you, in Jesus’ name. God bless our homeland Ghana!

Author: Elorm Apediavu Hermann
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