Former Health Minister: Raul Castro Would Never Flood Ghana With Cuban Doctors

Government is currently in a fix and banking all hopes on the Cuban government to supply the country with medical experts to fill the void angry doctors will leave should they decide to embark on a mass resignation exercise, would be suicidal.

This was an observation made by a former Minster of Health, Dr. Kweku Afriyie as he tackled the impasse between the government and the striking doctors on Peace FM’s Midday News Bulletin on Thursday.

Medical doctors across the country threatened to resign en-masse if their service conditions are not improved in seven months.

They gave government an ultimatum of 30th June 2015 to comprehensively review their service conditions or they leave the health profession entirely.

But the former Health Minister under the erstwhile Kufour administration claims such an action would be recorded as an unprecedented event and a disgrace to the National Democratic Congress.

Dr. Kweku Afriyie claims the current Cuban president, Raul Castro, knows how political the issue is in Ghana and would not want to risk interfering in matters that the government of Ghana has poorly handled.

If doctors in Ghana should resign on a mass scale it would be an unprecedented event in this country. There is also no truth in the speculation that Cuban doctors are queuing to come to Ghana to replace doctors who want to resign.

This is a pure political matter and Raul Castro wouldn’t want poke his nose into the matter. The Cuban government wouldn’t want to risk rubbing salt into the wounds of Ghanaian doctors”, he said.

As deliberation between government and members of the Ghana Medical Association over enhancements of conditions of service continues to drag its feet, Dr. Kweku Afriyie urged government to quickly nib it in the bud before it gets worse.

Disclosing how the New Patriotic Party tackled the same issue during their tenure, Dr. Afriyie noted that “seven years ago when we (NPP) faced a similar problem, I spoke to my colleague doctors like a doctor and not a politician. They had faith in me and trusted that their problem would be taken care off”, he said.