Health Service Workers discuss new Health Service Act.

The Health Services Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress has been discussing vital issues regarding the new Ghana Health Service and the Teaching Hospital Act, which is to take effect before the end of the year. In an encounter organized for members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on health, the General-Secretary Mr. John Gameh Akoto, told the Committee that there has been considerable apprehension among unionists on the status of mission hospitals in the new service. Mr. Akoto said the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospitals Act of 1996 did not clearly spell out the future relationship of these mission hospitals with the government and that is generating a great deal of tension among their employees. Currently, he said, the government pays the salaries of staff of mission hospitals throughout the country. Mr. Akoto cited for instance, that there seemed to be a serious contradiction in the Act. According to him, section 3 2 a of the Act on the objects and functions of the service, says the service shall ensure access to health services at the community, sub-district and regional levels by providing health services or contracting out service provision to other recognized health care providers". Then section 55 (6) of the Act on the scope of the service states that "the service established under the Act shall not include persons employed by religious bodies or other charitable institutions.