Danger looms as doctors threaten to strike from October over non-settlement of arrears

The doctors under the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in a communiqué issued after a National Executive Council meeting, the group said the strike will start with the withdrawal of services to out-patients.

The strike action will begin with the suspension of Out-Patient Service from October 1. If by October 15, nothing has been done about their demands, the association of medical doctors says they will completely suspend every service they offer and not show up at hospitals at all.

The "withdrawal of all in-patient services will begin the following week (effective Friday, 8th October 2021) if all the issues are still not completely resolved," it said.

Justice Yankson, the General Secretary of the GMA said that the association has been "more than magnanimous enough and the government should be able to honour its commitment."

"Now, the implementation of that documentation has been fraught with problems. We have done our ultimate best to get this resolved behind the scenes. We've had countless numbers of meetings," the statement added.

He added that the doctors view the strike as the last resort as the government has consistently failed to address their issues.

"We've done our utmost best under the circumstances to get the matters resolved. We have had to take this direction because that probably seems to be our last resort. Even that, we still have given the government ample time, and we expect that in good faith, they should be able to discharge their obligations towards us," he added.