Sanity In The Health Sector Should Be Restored.

The opposition New Patriotic Party flag bearer has admonished president John Mills to end the blame game and take steps to return striking doctors to the wards. At a news conference in Accra, Wednesday, Nana Akufo-Addo questioned what he said is government’s poor handling of the crisis, insisting doctors are responsible and would not have laid down their tools if government had been proactive in handling the situation. The Ghana Medical Association, last Friday announced a nationwide strike after stalled negotiation on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) and have since deserted the various public hospitals in the country.

Except for a few emergency cases, the majority of patients have been sent back home, some with only first aid treatment. President John Mills during a tour of the Greater Accra Region on Tuesday appealed to the doctors to return to duty whilst steps are taken to resolve their grievances.He also accused the NPP for only announcing the SSSS policy in 2009 but not putting in place any strategy for implementation. Nana Addo in a reaction said President Mills cannot in the tail end of his administration still blame the NPP for his failures.

He said if Mills complains about the NPP not leaving enough resources for the implementation of the SSSS, then the NPP should have as well left behind its ministers and president in place who would have dealt with the crisis in a “more intelligent manner.”Describing the president’s comment as “unfortunate”, Nana Addo said the government is not handling the crisis in a responsible manner, especially, when the same government had promised all public workers they would be migrated onto the new pay policy by the end of September this year.

“You are nearly at the end of the mandate; you continue to blame the [NPP],” he lamented Nana Addo said the strike should not be allowed to persist any further and the president must take immediate action to ensure sanity in the health sector is restored. “The Minister of Health, Yieleh Chireh is a man who can dismiss a doctor like Frimpong Boateng from his job with immediate effect. I would have thought that such a person is exactly the kind of person the President should instruct with immediate effect to engage with the doctors.“And we are talking about not tomorrow, not a day after tomorrow but today. That for me will be the action I would expect from the president,” Nana Addo emphasized.He also appealed to the doctors to tamper justice with mercy and return to work purely on humanitarian grounds.