GMA's posture is callous – Franklin Cudjoe

daniel russell

August 15, 2015 3:21 PM

Doctors have extended their strike for two more weeks

The executive director of policy think-tank, IMANI Centre for Policy Education has described the current posture taken by the Ghana Medical Association as callous.

The doctors after a three-hour crucial General Assembly meeting held at the Ghana Medical Association offices at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on Friday, decided to continue with their strike and review their decision after two weeks if government fails to meet their demands.

This, according to Franklin Cudjoe is illegal and callous.

“It is wrong and it is illegal for the doctors to withdraw their services while negotiations are going on. It is callous,” he said on Citi FM’s news analysis program,

When he was confronted with the question of whether the doctors were not right in taking such a posture, giving that government acted in bad faith by leaking the documents with details of the doctors' demands, Mr. Cudjoe said he saw nothing wrong with the leakage.

“As a tax payer I care about the kitty, what comes into the kitty and who is making demands of it. Just as we make demands of what politicians get from the national kitty, we also have to know what doctors are asking for," he said.

The IMANI boss also charged doctors to be mindful of the current economic situation of the country and be rational in their demands from the state.

“The doctors have not had conditions of service for the past twenty-three years, and that is not right. But you cannot just make demands and not be cognizant of whether there are resources to meet those demands. You have to be mindful of where the resources to satisfy your demands will come from.”

Mr. Cudjoe however expects government to be tactful in dealing with the grievances of the striking doctors. The Ghana medical Association is in its second week of what has become a full strike action to drive home demands for conditions of service, after negotiations with government broke down in June this year.

daniel russell