The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH), a not-for-profit civil society health organisation has called on striking doctors in public health institutions to end their industrial action or face legal action. It described the action of the doctors as “totally illegal and against the labour laws of Ghana”, for which reason the doctors were liable for legal prosecution. The coalition maintained that doctors in the country had taken Ghanaians for granted for far too long and it was high time they lived up to their calling of saving lives and not ending them. Representatives of the coalition who called at the offices of the Daily Graphic to state their position on the industrial action were Dr Joan Awunyo-Akaba, the National Board Chairman of the GCNH and Executive Director of the Future Generation International; Mr Sulley Sumani, Board Advisor; Madam Josephine Agbo-Nettey, Board Advisory member; Mr James Odartey Mills, Legal Advisor, and Mrs Becklyn Ulzer Christian, a coalition member. Armed with provisions of the Labour Law, the coalition noted that Section 164 of the law provided that unresolved disputes should be settled by compulsory arbitration after the matter had been referred to the National Labour Commission (NLC). According to the coalition, the Labour Law stated that “a person who declares or instigates or incites others to take part in a strike or lockout or acts in furtherance of a strike or lockout which is illegal under subsection (1) is liable for any damage, loss or injury suffered by any other person as a result of the illegal strike or lockout”. “The form of a strike or lockout in sympathy with another body or organisation shall be in form agreed upon with the management of the sympathisers and shall not disrupt the operational activities of the enterprise whose workers are sympathisers,” the group quoted the law as saying. The coalition maintained that Section 163 of the Labour Act specifically provides that “a worker engaged in an essential service shall not resort to a lockout or strike in connection with or in furtherance of any industrial dispute involving the workers in the essential service”. According to the coalition, majority of the citizenry relied solely on the government hospitals for medical care because they could not afford the private hospitals and the strike had destroyed the lives of such vulnerable people, adding that Ghana was talking about attaining the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4) which included pregnant women and children.