Medical Association to soon reject results without proper authorization by qualified lab physicians

• The KATH Chapter of laboratory scientists have started an indefinite strike

• The scientists say they want some two lab physicians posted to their unit to be reversed else they will remain striking

• The GMA has issued a warning that it will soon begin rejecting results not properly certified

Soon, laboratory results without authorization by qualified laboratory physicians will be rejected, warns the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

This threat, the Association says, will be carried out if the Ministry of Health does not resolve the current impasse between the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and the two laboratory physicians posted there.

According to a citinewsroom.com report, Dr. Frank Ankobea, the President of the Ghana Medical Association, warned, “When push comes to shove, the GMA and its members may be forced to reject laboratory results without authorization by qualified laboratory Physicians at a point in time.”

Also, the GMA wants an immediate end to all forms of threats, harassment and assault directed at Laboratory Physician residents and specialists by the members of the medical laboratory scientists.

“All other forms of threats (including but not limited to murder and bodily harm), harassment and assault directed at these Laboratory Physician residents and Specialists should cease forthwith”, Dr. Frank Ankobea added.

Also, the GMA is demanding that all laboratory physicians who were forced out of various hospital laboratories, amid the tensions between laboratory scientists and doctors, be called back to post.

Last week, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists announced a one-week sit-down strike on to press home their demands for a reversal of the decision to move two laboratory physicians who had been transferred to the hospital’s laboratory department.

Later, on Thursday, May 27, 2021, the group then declared an indefinite strike, pushing further their move.

This development, according to the GMA, has pushed it to demand that all resident medical doctors in and training with the Ghana College of Physicians Surgeons and the West African Colleges of Physicians, and those pursuing programmes in Laboratory Medicine “should be granted unfettered full access to all relevant laboratory spaces within the various teaching sites.”