Medical Doctors in Eastern Region are part of the GMA strike - Dr Frimpong Boateng

The Chairman of the Eastern Division of the Ghana Medical Association(GMA), Dr Frimpong Boateng has denied news circulating in some media circles that Medical Doctors working in public facilities are not part of the strike action taken by the GMA.

He said all members of the Association working in public facilities in the region are part of the current strike action.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua on Tuesday, Dr Boateng said by the decision of the GMA, its members in public hospitals and clinics would only attend to patients on admission and emergency cases only and that the members of the Association had to be at their work places but would not attend to Out Patients Department (OPD) cases.

He said public health facilities which have medical assistants could be running OPD cases because the Medical Assistants are not members of the Association and therefore are not bound by the decisions of the GMA.

Dr Boateng, who is also a member of the Executive Council of the GMA, advised media personnel to seek the credentials of the people they talk to when they visit any health facility and avoid generalization of personnel found attending to patients as members of the GMA.

The GMA declared a partial strike of its members in public health facilities on Monday to back their demand for government to pay salary arrears owed medical doctors working in public health facilities.

Meanwhile, a visit to the Koforidua Regional Hospital by the GNA saw some nurses at the OPD attending to patients whiles the OPD was almost empty.

Patients seen by the nurses at the OPD and those on admission had to buy their drugs from outside because the pharmacy of the hospital was not working due to the strike action by the members of the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association over the unfair market premium given them by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.

Source: GNA