Court hears suit against doctors today

An Accra Fast Track High Court is expected to hear a writ praying the court to declare the ongoing doctors strike illegal.

The Ghana Medical Association has been on strike for about two weeks now over stalled negotiations on conditions of service.

The doctors have refused to yield to pressure to resume work and go back to negotiations table as they stick to their roadmap which could see them resigning en masse soon.

Meanwhile, President Mahama yesterday described the strike as illegal and beyond comprehension. “They should go back to work, government will negotiate in good faith" and "not under duress", he stated.

General Secretary of the United Front Party, Listowell Kusi Poku who took the issue to court is hopeful the court will order the striking doctors to go back to work.

According to him, he has seen some Ghanaians die as a result of “their illegal strike”.

In the writ dated August 6, and filed at the Labour and Industrial Division of the Accra High Court, Kusi-Poku finds the conduct of the GMA as “quite disturbing in view of the crucial role medical doctors play in any nation’s life and wondered if a strike action should not be the last resort especially since it had not heard of any negotiations between the Government or its representatives which had broken down preceding the announcement that the defendant was embarking on a strike action.”

Meanwhile, Health Minister Alex Segebefia has asked persons seeking health care to turn to quasi government hospitals (allied health group) like SSNIT Hospital, Cocoa Clinic, and VRA Hospital among others in order to ease the pressure on Police and 37 Military Hospitals.

In a related development, the members of the government hospital and pharmacist association say there has been improvement in their negotiations with government on their placement on the single spine salary structure.