The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference has said it is wrong for health professionals to embark on strike at the expense of the poor and marginalized. Making the bishops’ views known, the Episcopal Chairman for Health, Most Rev. Thomas Mensah said: "It is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the health sector for any health professional to go on strike for pecuniary motives." He was speaking at the 39th annual council meeting of the Ghana Health Association on the theme: "Sustaining Christian Health Services to the Poor." Bishop Mensah, therefore called on health professionals to pay special attention to the poor and vulnerable in the discharge of their duties. Most Rev. Mensah who is also the Bishop of the Obuasi Catholic Diocese, suggested that spirituality should form part of the training of health professionals to be able to empathies with the sick. Deputy Health Minister, Samuel Owusu Agyei, in a speech read for him, charged the association to spearhead the campaign to get the vulnerable in their communities registered with the national health insurance scheme. He said the relationship between the association and the Ministry had been strengthened by the establishment of the joint steering committee and the signing of the Administrative Instructions to operationalise the Memoranda of Understanding between them. Dr. Albert Quainoo, Chairman of the Executive Board of the association, said the association’s membership had grown from 25 health institutions in 1967 to 160 in 2007 across the country, providing primary health care services including immunization, family planning, maternal and child health services and adolescent reproductive health care. Ashanti Regional Director of Health Service, Dr. Kofi Asare, expressed concern about the many health centres that had been established by individuals who claimed to belong to the association. He therefore, appealed to the association to streamline its membership to remove the bad nuts. Credit: Ghanaian Times