The Ghana Medical Association’s (GMA) General Secretary has stated the Association is unperturbed about recent calls from health groups to have two KATH physicians removed from their post.

In an interview on Joy FM, Dr Justice Yankson opined the Association is in the right by demanding Lesley Osei and Eunice Agyemang Ahmed be maintained at post at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

“We are not moved by any support because the right things must be done. It is not about numbers. We've heard this over and over. This is not the first time these issues are coming up,” he said.

“…I'm not so sure where they are coming from but it is within their rights to queue out any bit they can put on paper. That doesn't bother us at all. Our position is very simple, any medical doctor who had chosen his profession lawfully is enjoined by the laws of the land to have that freedom to practice his lawfully chosen profession within the ambit of the law,” he stated on Friday.

His comments follow press statements issued by the Ghana Federation of Allied Health Professions (GFAHP), Health Services Workers' Union of TUC who indicated that having the physicians in question still at post is 'illegal' since the two are uncertified.

“The attempt to undermine the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies (HPRB) Act, 2013, Act 857 and Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC), will be resisted by all allied health professionals in this country,” GFAHP added in its statement.

But according to Dr Justice Yankson, the two medical officials belonging to the GMA “are not just medical doctors but clinical haematologists.”

He further noted that it has been the practice to have qualified health experts appointed by the management of hospitals to head respective departments, therefore, stated that the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMBLs) has no right to demand their removal.

 “It is something that has always existed not only in Ghana but in all other jurisdictions. Now it is within the remit of the employer to decide who bears a particular administrative position as the head of units or whatever. And once the mantle falls on somebody because of his unique expertise and what have you, nobody has the right to say that 'that person should step aside’ because they feel entitled to certain positions. It is not written anywhere that such behaviors should be condoned.

“People choose people to head positions based on a lot of considerations. I don't work in Komfo Anokye and I'm not part of management but I'm sure they had very good reasons for positing these doctors who are laboratory practitioners. That is the fact everybody should understand,” he said.

He, therefore, condemned actions taken by aggrieved KATH workers by citing findings from Prof Ayittey Committee, that state that “laboratory space does not belong to anyone group of persons in the hospital.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Medical Association has given the assurance that any form of harassment on the two health personnel in question would be “fiercely resisted.”