Tamale Teaching Hospital staff threaten to withdraw services on Friday

Staff of the Tamale Teaching Hospital have threatened to embark on a strike action effective Friday, March 12, 2021.

This was disclosed in a communiqué issued by management of the facility on behalf of doctors, nurses, laboratorians, Pharmacists, Orderlies and security workers March 10.

This is to draw the government’s attention to issues they say have demotivated almost all members of the team and also brought down morale at the holding, isolation and treatment centres for Covid-19 in TTH.

“We have been forced to undertake an industrial action and withdraw our services starting Friday the 12th of March, 2021.”

As part of the government’s rollout plan, health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, and teachers are to be vaccinated with the first batch of vaccines.

But, the TTH statement indicates that health care workers in the facility seem to have been sidelined from this opportunity.

“Our attention has been drawn to the fact that non-health workers are receiving the Covid-19 vaccines while we the frontline health workers here in Tamale Teaching have no access to the vaccine.”

The statement also noted that “no member of the team have received any insurance package promised to frontline health workers when they get infected by Covid-19 in line of duty.”

Management further called on President Akufo-Addo to honor his promise of “our 50% basic salary allowance” as all efforts to make authorities pay have proven futile.