KATH doctors, nurses call off strike

Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor / Daily Graphic / Ghana Health Feb - 21 - 2014 , 07:58

Doctors and nurses at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have called off the strike they embarked on on February 14, this year in solidarity with their colleagues who were beaten up by a mob.

The mob attacked the Maternity Ward (Ward A1) of KATH and assaulted nurses and doctors on duty over the missing body of a stillborn baby delivered to Madam Suwaiba Abdul-Mumin at the hospital on February 5, 2014.

A source close to the doctors told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the decision followed an apology from the family of the mother of the baby to the staff of the Maternity Ward over the action of the youth and a pledge not to attack the staff and the hospital again.

According to the source, at a meeting by the doctors and the nurses yesterday, the two groups of health workers agreed to call off the strike following the apology and the security arrangement put in place by the management and the REGSEC.

Last Wednesday, after the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC), led by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, had met with the family and assured them of the council’s preparedness to unravel the circumstances that led to the disappearance of the body, the family withdrew its threat.

Prior to that meeting, the family had issued a statement warning that it would not stop at anything to retrieve the body of the baby, “dead or alive”.

Last week Thursday, about 50 young men and women attacked the Maternity Ward of KATH and assaulted nurses and doctors on duty, demanding the body of the baby believed to have been stillborn on February 5, this year.

The mob came shouting, “Ye pe yen funu”, to wit ‘we want our body’ and started beating any staff on sight.