Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has joined calls on striking doctors to call off their strike and return to the negotiating table.

President Kufuor said the doctors stand a better chance of having their grievances addressed when they call off their strike.

The former President was speaking at the University of Education, Winneba in the Central Region, after he was awarded an honorary Doctorate Degree by the university.

“For the ultimate humanitarian considerations of the suffering masses of the people of Ghana, and with their [doctors’] case already so strongly made, I appeal to them to restrain themselves from taking the final step of irreparable damage to the nation…the strike should be cut off. The nation I believe will not forget this informed compromise”, he appealed to the members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

He asked government to reach out and dialogue with the GMA “with evident concern, transparency, decorum and spirit of conciliation”.

He charged both parties – Government and GMA – to allow cool heads to prevail in order to save precious lives.

The GMA voted Friday at a crucial General Assembly meeting to remain on strike for two more weeks, agreeing not to resign en masse as threatened by their leadership two weeks ago over an absence of documented conditions of service.

The renewed strike by the GMA means that private, military and police hospitals across the country will have to battle increased patient numbers amid scarce facilities for at least two more weeks.