Don't blame doctors when they go on strike, it's not always their fault - Former GMA president

The former president of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Kwabena Opoku Adusei, has appealed to Ghanaians to keep it cool with medical doctors when they come out to fight for better conditions of service using means such as strike actions and demonstrations.

He said the main factors accounting for doctors' protests and strike actions sometimes have to do with low motivation, especially, for medical officers working in the rural areas of the country.

He added that doctors do not make deliberate decisions to fight the government.

He further stated that some medical officers, especially the newly posted ones, usually refuse postings to remote areas in the country due to a Lack of accommodation and necessary working logistics.

He, therefore, appealed to the government, chiefs, and other stakeholders within the health sector to intervene.

"Sometimes when we [Doctors] come out to talk about what we go through, the public think that doctors like fighting, we like striking, we like demonstration. It looks like nobody wants to listen to us. That's how the issue is. Imagine a doctor going somewhere to work and there's no accommodation, sometimes, no office, a lot of them face this".

"So we shouldn't blame the doctors too much for refusing postings to rural areas. It is the things they need to enable them to work that are not available. That's why we are appealing to the government, the district assemblies, and the chiefs to assist us", he said.

Kwabena Opoku Adusei now the Director of the Kintampo College of Health and Wellbeing, raised these issues on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at Kintampo during a general meeting held by the Brong Ahafo Division of GMA.

The theme for the meeting was "Attracting and Retaining Doctors Within the Bono, Ahafo, and Bono East".