The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) is calling on the government to accelerate the implementation of agreed conditions of service for its members.

The association is attributing the poor state of mental well-being among some of their members to the deplorable working environment.

Among other things, the GMA is demanding improved salaries and benefits, car waivers, and security of tenure.

Speaking to JoyNews, the General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Richard Selormey stressed that a majority of their members are operating in challenging conditions that require urgent attention.

"A doctor is working in a district facility, he has to deal with a pregnant woman who needs to have an emergency procedure.. and he needs to refer this woman to a higher centre.. the ambulance comes in and sometimes you have to spend hours with them battling for them to pay for the ambulance and we have to do that from our own pockets.

"Sometimes this back and forth goes on to the extend that people die. We are human beings as doctors and we feel it as well. Some, because of this over load of work, where we don't go on leave, females who are pregnant still have to go to work.. they are on leave but they are still at work and yet the remuneration does not go with these things. All this affect the mental health of doctors," he said.

In November 2023, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) made some fresh demands from government over their conditions of service which was to take effect in January 2024.

The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, acting on behalf of the government, was presented with a list of demands.

But ahead of the signing in January, President of the Association, Dr. Frank Serebour at the 65th General Meeting of the Association, made some key demands including access to free quality healthcare, secured pension including retirement on salary as well as a waiver on vehicles imported by doctors.

According to him, the poor working conditions of doctors make it imperative that they are compensated adequately.

“… We need to be protected from workplace hazards, we need to be given accessible healthcare which is unambiguously free, we need to be compensated for all the hazards we face.

"Our pensions need to be secured after we have sacrificed our bodies, minds and souls, we need logistics and an enabling environment to enable us to heal ourselves so that we can have the mental and physical well-being to be able to heal the population.

"Retirement on salary is not too much to ask for, there should be an immediate reinstatement of the vehicle importation tax waiver for health workers.

"We should not be made to pay the ultimate price of losing our lives and homes in the quest of taking care of the vulnerable; someone must care for the health worker. What we are asking for is not an impossibility. We are not asking for the moon to swallow the sun neither are we asking for immortality,” he said.

GMA warned that they may be forced to take a tough stance if the government fails to sign and implement the conditions of service by January 1, 2024.