Meeting on doctor’s conditions of service ends in deadlock
A meeting scheduled between officials of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) yesterday ended in a deadlock.
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The parties were supposed to meet in order to finalise issues involving doctors’ conditions of service.
However, the doctors, who seemed not prepared to append their signatures to the document, boycotted the meeting, with the excuse that they had not read the information in the agreement, “hence they will never commit themselves to that”.
Meanwhile, the MoH has asked them to study the document today and for a meeting tomorrow to append their signatures.
Attempts made to speak to the leadership of the doctors proved futile, as they said they needed to study the agreement critically before they could make any comment on the matter.
GMA’s threat
The GMA renewed its threat to embark on an industrial action if its members did not have negotiated and signed conditions of service by the end of June 2015.
At the end of its third national executive council (NEC) meeting in Cape Coast early this month, it said it would hold the government to its promise to ensure that its members working with the MoH through the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the teaching hospitals were provided with conditions of service.
Currently, such doctors do not enjoy conditions of service.
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In a communiqué issued by the GMA at the end of the meeting, it said it drew the government’s attention to the absence of conditions of service for its members in November 2014 and the deadline of June 30, 2015 was set.
It also said the government accepted its responsibility to meet the demand.
Renewal of threat
The renewal of the threat, according to the GMA, was due to the fact that the government, through some machinations, had been trying to absolve itself of blame if the deadline was not met.
The communiqué, which was signed by the President of the association, Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, and the General Secretary, Dr Frank Serebour, said the NEC of the GMA “hereby affirms that the GMA stands by its 30 June, 2015 deadline”.
Road map
It outlined measures that the association would undertake between then and the June 30 deadline to get the public adequately informed about developments.
It said all members of the GMA should look out for regular communication on the matter from the national and divisional secretariats and attend divisional meetings from Friday, June 5 to plan towards the deadline.