When Doctors Strike...

So, I heard some of the representatives of the Ghana Medical association on radio, and saw some on TV granting interviews with an air of importance about their decision to truncate their strike action and go back to work. Big deal, no?

This wouldn’t be the first time neither would it be the last and they also have a standing order to lay down their tools again, if the Government does not address their problems fully, which makes you want to think if their Hippocratic oath is just a window dressing. I stand to be corrected though, but I think the GMA is the leading pressure group in Ghana followed by the various segments of the Teachers Association, be it GNAT, NAGRAT or TEWU.

Undisputedly, Doctors must be the best people to know their role in society and how they help save lives that could be lost, so why do they hold the whole nation to ransom because of money? Are they using the possible loss of lives as leverage to make more money? sika y3 mogya ampa. 

Sometimes, you are baffled by happenings around you that, our bearing as a nation is lost on you. Doctors, like any other persons must cater for themselves and their dependents but is that enough reason to make them sacrifice the trivial many on the altar of money? 

I have been around for a while and understand that strike action is the only language the government understands but I still think, laying down tools and vacating post is not the right thing to do. The job must be a tireless one and requires high mental ability at all times to man it and I also support the fact that they get any increment as justified by their petition, but these Doctors are at least being paid averagely well. These Doctors have better living conditions than most Ghanaians and shouldn’t have chosen money over our lives.

Commonsense should tell anyone around that these Doctors usually are already rich, even before venturing into the profession. Medicine and other related courses are pursued mostly by rich and brilliant kid; not the lazy and block-headed types I sat in class with, who will go partying every weekend at a sister school or at the club. These kids are the ones who are able to afford the fees and buy the numerous medicine textbooks and where the government subsidy does not provide for them, the very rich afford the fee-paying mode. These and more are some of the obvious reasons why I think these Doctors could have extended their humanitarian services while they talk with the government.

As for the government, the least said about it, the better. Almost everybody is tired with an insensitive government that will approve GH¢50,000 for rent allowance and GH¢7,200 as salary for making laws that are not enforced. A government that looks on for newly born babies to be bathed with sachet water while its citizenry went to bed almost every day in the dark is not a topic I want to delve into.

I believe that, just like any other endeavor, these people have passion for what they do and even tout the fact that you have to be ‘called’ to pursue it and I want to believe that mantra. I so believe it because I had always nursed the ambition to venture into medicine for reasons best known to me but I rescinded that decision even before the ‘calling’ time.

Just like the adage which states that “when two Elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers”, we the masses (grass) bear all the brunt and become victims when the two proverbial Elephants namely the Ghana Medical Association and the Government of the day fights. 

Sometimes, I ask myself, “How much koraa does the government pay these Doctors?” you will realize that none of the parties involved is willing to state what the issue really is, all we hear is the pay is not good. Hmmm, makes some of us recoil and watch proceedings and this raises some more questions like….

 

“How much is the Government paying the Doctors and what is the basis?”

“How much do the Doctors want to be paid and what’s their basis/justification?

“Would the payment be enough to mitigate possible future strikes?”

“Why has the Government not granted their request yet or it’s not justified?”

“If the Government was going to do something about it anyway, why did it have to wait for the tax payer to die before it pays the Doctors?"

All these are questions the Ghanaian is dying to have answers to. Well, whatever the issue is, they should sit and trash it out because we the masses are suffering. We want quality and timeous healthcare from the very people who have vowed to save us from the clutches of death with modern medicine and we pray that, they should not use the sick as a means to their end.