The Executive Director of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has lauded the Health Minister’s decision to have District Assemblies pay salaries of doctors in their districts.
Health Minister, Sherry Ayitey announced at a stakeholders forum that government is considering a proposal that will ensure that doctors working in the various districts would be paid by the assemblies, the move she explains forms part of government’s decentralization policy.
Mr. Cudjoe on The Big Issue said the move is in the right direction. ”…there is too much government involvement in our lives.”
According to him, government must not continue employing teachers, doctors etc in Accra and be paying them.
”I think that it will be the unraveling of the decentralization that we’ve been peaking at for a very long time,” he noted.
The founder of IMANI, Ghana said it is important for government to deepen decentralization so successive governments will be free from the huge wage bills.
”I support the government 100 percent on this one,” he said.
But the Ghana Medical Association has vehemently rejected the proposal, saying it is ”unthinkable”.
According to the Association, the move cannot be sustained.
Currently doctors are paid by the central government.
By : Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana