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Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Adentan constituency has described as “blackmail” the strike action declared by doctors.

According to Kojo Adu-Asare, the doctors are just using the lives of Ghanaians as a bargaining chip to coerce government to heed to their demands. Doctors in the public sector have suspended Out Patients Department (OPD) services across the country as the Ghana Medical Association begins the process towards en mass resignation within three weeks.

This was after negotiations for conditions of service stalled over the past one week as patients struggle to get medical attention. The GMA has hinted it would abandon the emergency units as they pile pressure on government for their conditions of service. But speaking on Asempa FM bThursday, Kojo Adu Asare said the doctors are doing a great disservice to the citizenry. “The doctors strike is total blackmailing of the people; they are rather punishing the masses who visit the hospitals not government,” he stressed.

The former Adentan MP could not fathom why the doctors will punish the citizens whose taxes are used to pay them. “The people’s taxes are used to pay you [doctors] so when you withdraw your services, who do you think you are punishing?” he quizzed. Kojo Adu-Asare called on them to respect their Hippocratic Oath and return back to work.