Doctors: Work to rule has started

Accra, May 18, GNA - Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebour, on Monday said the work-to-rule action by doctors to press home demands to review salaries and working conditions has started in earnest and that doctors nationwide would close at 1700 hours.

In a telephone interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra, he said the GMA really meant whatever was communicated in the statement that was issued over the weekend and would not relent until their demands were met. He said by their action they would not be working on weekends until a headway is made.

Meanwhile, the government has been working round the clock to resolve the matter with the doctors.

Asked how the meeting between the GMA president and the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Ben Kunbuor went, he said no consensus was reached on salaries and conditions of services. The GMA over the weekend said the position of the National Executive Council affected all doctors nationwide and not just junior doctors, noting that "we fully support the adoption of measures to bring some closure to these thorny issues".

The statement noted that since 2006 salaries of doctors had not been reviewed despite several attempts to get these issues resolved. The statement further explained that negotiations had stalled since the last meeting held on Tuesday, May 12, without any consensus on either the salary review of the condition of service.