Full Gospel, Federation of Muslims, Lepowura appeal to doctors to resume work
Two religious groups and a former chief director of the Ministry of Health have called on public sector doctors to call off their strike.
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The Federation of Muslim Councils (FMC), the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) and the Lepowura, Alhaji Mohammed N.D. Jawula, called for dialogue between the government and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to reach a consensus to end patients’ suffering.
FMC
In its statement, the FMC said it was gravely concerned about the increasing spate of strikes by many workers’ unions in the country, especially the one by the GMA over conditions of service.
“The FMC is further saddened by the breakdown of negotiations between the government and the GMA, as well as the continued loss of innocent lives as a result of the stalemate.
“In order to save lives, the federation joins other sobering voices in the country in appealing to the GMA to call off the strike by its members by restoring out-patient and emergency services in public health facilities and continue negotiating with the government,” it said.
The statement, signed by its General Secretary, Hajj Muhammad Kpakpo Addo, said it was commendable on the part of the GMA to continue with in-patient care while negotiating, but indicated that it would be most laudable to extend the same care to out-patients and emergency clients while negotiating.
It appealed to the public, especially social commentators, to be circumspect in their statements of intervention to allow coolness of minds and sober reflection by the negotiating parties in a matter which had already claimed precious innocent lives.
FGBMFI
The FGBMFI, in its statement, called on the striking doctors to reconsider their decision and return to work as negotiation was ongoing.
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It said the matter worsened by the day simply because each party’s determination to show who wielded ultimate power had degenerated into a “battle of wills”.
It pleaded with the doctors to allow their hearts to be touched by the suffering of innocent citizens whose lives hung on a thread.
The statement appealed to doctors to resume work, especially now that it was clear the government had shifted its own position and presented alternative counter-proposals to their demands.
“A resumption of work will not amount to recapitulation. It will rather prove the maturity of the leadership and a willingness to heed the several appeals by well-meaning Ghanaians.
“Our concern is the needless and avoidable deaths the hospitals are recording daily and the pile-up of corpses in the mortuaries,” it said.
Lepowura
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at Prampram, Alhaji Jawula said the break in the health system was not to anybody’s gain and, therefore, stressed that dialogue and negotiation must prevail to arrive at an amicable solution, reports Benjamin Xornam Glover.
He bemoaned the level to which discussions on the matter had reached, saying the blame game must stop.
"The discussions are moving towards the propaganda level and I am not comfortable with that. People know where I stand politically but issues of health do not know politics," he said.
Alhaji Jawula said the issues had lingered on for a long time and said only dialogue and negotiation could resolve them.