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Managing Editor of the �Insight� newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. says he is disgusted by the Ghana Medical Association�s decision to still continue with their strike action despite repeated appeals to them to return to duty and has slammed the association describing the striking doctors as �charlatans�. To him, the �reckless� nationwide strike action embarked on by the doctors will never enhance their esteem in the eyes of the public He has however called on the few good ones amongst them to stand on their feet and opt out of the strike action and let their colleagues know they are an �embarrassment� to the profession. �When a doctor begins to say publicly that people can die, that if the government wouldn�t meet our demands�let people die; that even before the strike people were dying anyway, where is his oath which he swore? When doctors begin to behave this way, they are not doctors�they are the real charlatans not me. Me, who is speaking the truth, and they who say people can die because they have a grievance, who is the charlatan?� he quizzed. Members of the GMA took off their stethoscope about a week ago and in spite of numerous appeals to them to return to the wards including that of President John Evans Atta Mills, the life-saving personnel have resolved to remain resolute in their demands. Contributing to discussions on Radio Gold�s �Alhaji and Alhaji� programme, he cautioned against members of the opposition riding on the back of this development to create dissatisfaction for the ruling government, since the history of the country is replete with countless strike actions by members of the medical profession. �This is not the first time that doctors and medical personnel have gone on strike. They went on strike under Busia, they went on strike under Acheampong, they went on strike under Rawlings, they went on strike under Kufour, they are now on strike under President Mills. All of us, who claim to be politicians, should be learning important lessons. Any time the strike occurs, people in opposition want to feed on it in order to cause disaffections for the government so that it will enhance their chances of coming to power. When they come to power, they face the same music�so isn�t it time that we sat down and begun to look at the national interest rather than our political narrow interest?� he rhetorically asked. The outspoken senior journalist called on religious bodies, Muslim leaders, Trade Unionists, the Ghana Bar Association and other members of civil society to openly condemn the �major national calamity� which the doctors had caused through their �reckless� act. Clearly outrage at the action by the striking doctors, Mr Pratt maintained that their concerns lacked merit and they needed to be told in plain language that it was nothing short of �blackmail�. �Nobody should beg the doctors to go back to work, it is not about begging�it is about insisting on the right thing,� he posited. He also described the government�s intervention in the matter as pitiful and sarcastically stated that the president and his ministers should not have waded into it but should rather have allowed the doctors the opportunity to �kill ten thousand of us just because their pay has not been improved�.