The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has concluded the recruitment of new house officers for the hospital.
This follows the withdrawal of services by 91 junior officers of the hospital on April 9 and a subsequent advertisement and interviews conducted by the hospital to recruit new doctors in May.
In all, 120 house officers were recruited compromising 58 first year house officers and 62 second year officers.
According to the head of the Human Resource Unit of the hospital, Anthony Afedzi, the 58 were picked from the original number of 72 who withdrew their services.
“The hospital has done very well in recruiting 58 out of 72 so it is just 14 who have gone to other hospitals,” he said.
Mr Afedzi said the 62 second year house officers were serving in other hospitals outside Korle Bu.
He dismissed media reports that the 91 junior doctors had been dismissed saying “they withdrew their services not dismissed.”
“They wrote to management that they were withdrawing their services because their conditions of service were not spelt out in their appointment letters,” he explained.
He further explained that when management later wrote to the various heads of department explaining why the house officers were not coming to work and the subsequent dispensation of their services, they explained that what they meant by conditions of service was that their accommodation and free lunch should be included in their appointment letters.
“These were benefits that they were already enjoying and so there was no point thinking that food and accommodation will be specifically spelt out,” he said.
He added that their absence from the hospital did not affect work at the hospital.
“Korle Bu alone has over 500 doctors without the assistance of house officers,” he noted.
He expressed surprise that the kind of behaviour house officers put up at Korle Bu is different from the way they behave when they go out to the other regions.
