President John Mahama has appealed to medical doctors currently on strike to reconsider their decision and return to work while their grievances are resolved. In his first public statement on the doctors strike at a Special Congregation of the University for Development Studies in Tamale, the president reminded the doctors that they cannot allow the persons whose taxes pay them to suffer. He also noted that their concerns including the issue of conversion difference is not peculiar to them but to other health workers. "Let me add my voice to our respected citizen, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and once again appeal to our doctors to return to work while their grievances are attended to. We cannot continue to allow our people whose taxes pay our salaries to suffer in this way. Let us do away with entrenched positions", President Mahama stated. The President referred to the valedictory speech of the graduating medical doctors and urged them to remember it at all times. "I heard the young doctor say in the valedictory address, "I see every blessed day as a chance to save a life". Very instructive especially at this time. As you take your hippocratic oaths, it is my hope that you will remember and abide by it forever and ever." President Mahama also urged the newly inducted medical doctors to take advantage of upcoming opportunities in the security services for young medical doctors and apply. Forty-eight graduates of the University for Development Studies Medical School were inducted as medical doctors by the Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council. The Special Congregation also saw the conferring of an honorary doctorate degree on former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo.