Junior doctors not paid over past 8 months

Information gathered by The General Telegraph indicates that junior doctors (house officers) of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region, have not been paid over the past eight months.

The house officers who graduated from the School of Medical Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (SMS-KNUST) in September 2013 and are in their ninth month working at the hospital, have no idea when they will be paid.

The junior doctors have written to the Registrar of the School of Medical Science, Medical and Dental Council, reporting their plight.

According to their appointment letters dated September 9, 2013, first-year house officers will be placed on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) with a salary of GH¢1,025.51 per month for one year.

It is stated in the appointment letters that upon completion of two rotations during the first year, the house officers would be issued with new letters of posting, to undertake two other rotations as senior house officers on a salary of GH¢1,097.00 per month with effect from the date of their assumption of duty.

The terms and conditions of their service will be subject to the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospitals Act 1996 (Act 525), the Medical and Dental Decree, 1972 (NRCD 91) and the Legislative Instruments (LIs) and Administrative Instructions made and issued under the Acts, which may be in force from time to time during their period of internship.