The National Labour Commission (NLC) has called on the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to call off its strike “in the best interest of all stakeholders”. The NLC made the call on Wednesday after a meeting with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the GMA as part of its continuing effort to assist in resolving the issues relating to the migration of medical doctors onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). A statement signed by the Public Affairs Officer of the NLC, Mr Mohammed Affum, said the FWSC was led by its Chief Executive, Mr George Smith-Graham, while the GMA was led by its President, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful. “At the end of the meeting, the FWSC and the GMA agreed to continue their discussions with a view to arriving at an agreement on the outstanding issues,” it said. The statement said the parties agreed to refrain from discussing the issues in the media, as it had the potential to inflame passions and undermine the efforts to arrive at an expeditious agreement on the outstanding issues. “The Labour Commission respectfully urges other stakeholders and all public officers, including Honourable Ministers of State, to respect the embargo by restraining themselves from media discussion of the issues in contention,” it stressed. The statement said the FWSC and the GMA were to report back to the NLC on Friday, October 14, 2011 or earlier on the outcome of their discussions. Meanwhile, the NLC has directed members of the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOPSA) to stay any intended action and continue working while efforts to have their concerns addressed are ongoing. The directive was issued after the Commission had met with the FWSC and GHOPSA, whose members had threatened to go on strike on Thursday, October 20, 2011 if their concerns on the ongoing negotiations for their migration onto the SSSS were not addressed. The GHOPSA was led by its National Chairman, Mr Stephen Okoe Corquaye. According to the statement, at the meeting, the FWSC and GHOPSA agreed to meet on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 and continue with their negotiations and report back to the Commission on Wednesday, October 19, 2011. “They also agreed to refrain from discussing the issues in the media so as not to jeopardise the outcome of the negotiations,” it said. In a related development, the Minister of Health, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, on Wednesday visited two major health facilities in Accra to assess the impact of the strike by doctors on the operations of the facilities and reiterated the government’s appeal to the doctors to resume work while negotiations on their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) continued. Expressing his misgivings at the doctors’ action, the Minister assured them that the FWSC would not short change them but rather resolve to address their concerns on their migration onto the new pay structure. The visit took Mr Chireh to the Ridge Hospital and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to assess the impact of the strike by doctors which entered its sixth day on Wednesday. The Minister visited the Accident Centre, the Out-Patients Department (OPD), the Surgical/Emergency Unit, the National Cardiothoracic Centre, the Renal Dialysis Unit and the Maternity and Children's wards of the KBTH. Accompanied by the acting Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Frank Nyonator; the Director of Medical Affairs at the KBTH, Prof. Afua Hesse, and other officials of the Ministry of Health; Mr Chireh was taken round by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the KBTH, Prof. Nii Otu Nartey. At Korle-Bu, some doctors were on duty busily performing their normal duties, a gesture which Mr Chireh commended and thanked the doctors for going to the rescue of helpless patients who urgently needed their services. Patients at all the departments the minister and his delegation visited were being attended to, except at the OPD which was virtually empty, a situation which was an indication that new patients were not attended to at the hospital. Briefing newsmen on his assessment of the situation, the minister said as part of efforts being made to address the concerns of the doctors, a meeting involving the GMA, the FWSC and the Health Services Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress and the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association would be held on Friday to resolve the impasse. The CEO of the KBTH, Prof. Nii Otu Nartey, for his part, said instead of the doctors suddenly laying down their tools, they could have taken the option of wearing red arm bands as a signal of registering their concerns, which he believed could have attracted the attention of the authorities concerned. Meanwhile, the KBTH has officially announced the suspension of regular service until further notice, citing the strike by the members of the GMA.