He called on the doctors who are on strike due to their inability to reach a consensus with government over the payment of their 2012 market premium to get back to work as their services are much needed.
Dr. Henry Herbert Lartey, speaking in an interview on Radio Gold’s newspaper review on Thursday, chided the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) for inflaming the doctors’ passions to embark on a strike action.
He blamed the Commission for the recent development by the public sector workers because according to him, certain pronouncements by the authorities added salt to injury and provoked the medical doctors to withdraw their services to patients who are newly admitted in hospitals.
He was aggrieved by the conduct of the Commission towards the doctors when they made a decision to embark on a nationwide strike action if their demands are not addressed by government and the FWSC.
Medical doctors have since Monday, April 8, 2013 withdrew their services to patients after several deliberations with government to address their concerns regarding their Single Spine Pay Policy.
The doctors made demands for some arrears owed them since January 2012 to be remitted before they resume official duties in the various hospitals across the country.
They also griped about some inconsistencies in their conversion difference and pension contributions, and prayed the government to rectify them.
Though government pledged to defray the arrears in three installments, the dissatisfied doctors have threatened to suspend all medical services if their demands are not met by April, 15, 2013.
Dr. Henry Lartey slammed the FWSC which he believes did not help matters by taking an entrenched position, stressing that the Commission should have held talks with the doctors in a humane manner, so they would simmer down.
But to him, “It looks like though the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is not thinking out of the box. They are looking at the colonial system that is left behind. We have to change. We have to find a way to make Ghana work. You don’t create a situation where you claim problems for government because you are being ‘This is how it works’, so, it has to really go on like that.”
He therefore questioned why the arrears over the years were not prevented from piling up.
“Why should there be so many arrears, this arrears hanging off all this while and nothing was done about it?”, he asked, stating that “if you can’t afford to pay, find a way to speak to them in a language that they will understand…I’m sure they are honourable people who will take care of our people to make Ghana strong.”
The Commission, he said,“should have found skills to talk to the doctors in a humane way, so that doctors would have found to accept their recommendations. But if you put a stop or you say things to provoke doctors, then they will also go angry.”
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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