Doctors Divided As Strike Enters Third Day

Medical doctors across the country are divided over how to carry out a directive by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) for them to lay down their tools as some opt to stay put to save lives. As the strike enters its third day, doctors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital were seen attending to patients, despite a national strike declared by their mother organisation last Friday. The doctors decided to break ranks with the GMA at a meeting held between them and the Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Hospital, Dr Ken Sagoe, right after the strike was announced. Dr. Sagoe confirmed to Citi News that the doctors are indeed at post and have decided not to join the striking doctors.The hospital�s spokesperson Gabriel Nii Otu Ankrah noted that the doctors in the Northern region are committed to saving lives, hence their decision to stay at post despite the industrial action. �They want to work and save lives. So all the doctors are on duty and they are working,� he confirmed. Meanwhile, the situation in Kumasi in the Ashanti region is quite different.Officials at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital have told Citi News that the strike by the doctors is worsening the conditions of patients as they remain unattended to. The hospital is, however, making efforts to ensure that patients in critical condition are taken care of.Kofi Frimpong, PRO of the hospital told Citi News that the hospital is even overstretched when doctors are at post so the strike has really compounded the situation. When Citi News visited the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on Monday, the situation was no different from that of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. Citi News reporter Vera Ofori was told by doctors at the hospital that they were only attending to �dying emergency cases� and that any other case would be turned away.