The impasse between the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) over the migration of doctors onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) could soon be over; as indications are that the two parties are optimistic about reaching an agreement on the outstanding issues within the next 48 hours. At a compulsory arbitration meeting in Accra on Monday, the two parties informed the National Labour Commission (NLC) that they had held consultations earlier and were hopeful of reaching an agreement within the next two days.They, therefore, requested for the suspension of the arbitration process for them to continue with the negotiations and report back to the NLC tomorrow, October 19, 2011, a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the NLC, Mr Mohammed Afum, said.The ongoing crisis reached its peak last Friday when the striking doctors intensified their action by refusing to attend to emergency cases until their grievances had been attended to.In view of this looming crisis, President John Evans Atta Mills rolled out comprehensive contingency measures to contain the impact of the strike by doctors which is said to have claimed lives in some parts of the country. The doctors had claimed that the major issues resulting in their withdrawal of services still remained unresolved, for which reason their staying away from the hospitals was the only option to ensure that their demands were met. While many Ghanaians, including President Mills, have appealed to the striking doctors to rescind their decision as their grievances were being addressed, the calls have fallen on deaf ears. The NLC on Monday met the FWSC and the GMA to initiate the process for settling the dispute between them.The GMA declared a nationwide strike on Saturday, October 8, 2011 after its emergency national executive council meeting in Tamale on October 6, 2011.The association is complaining about distortion in the grading structures of the SSSS, issues of unscientific determination of the market premium and inducement by the FWSC.Others are the inability of the FWSC to provide unequivocal evidence of migration of doctors onto the SSSS and the ambiguous stance of the Single Spine Salary Secretariat on the positions of District Directors of the Ghana Health Service and medical superintendents.The inability of the GMA and the FWSC to reach a compromise on the concerns of the doctors compelled the NLC to order the two entities into compulsory arbitration on Monday, in accordance with Section 64 of ,the labour Act, 2003 (651).