Strike called off or NOT, there are a few
questions we should be asking ourselves because in my opinion, the strikes in
the grand scheme of things just lends credence to the fact that we have left
too many things in the hands of politicians while we are very much aware of
their agenda: “TO WIN ELECTIONS EVERY FOUR YEARS”. To that end anything that
needs to be planned for more than 5 years before it is executed to yield
meaningful results can never be achieved by any group of politicians. Because
it will still be in the planning or preparatory stage by the time the next
election comes; which of course won’t be an election winning resource.

To solve the perpetual recurrent strikes in
Ghana, the problems have to be looked at from the bottommost, because the
strikes are just manifestations of our failure to plan well and execute to the
letter. In the wake of the doctors strike, I have been asking myself these
questions, as I indicated earlier, these are not things to prevent the doctors
from going on strike soon, but I believe that if we could answer these
questions adequately, we could in the long term remove every reason there is to
go on strike from the arena of health provision in Ghana. After all, indulge me
to simplify the basic law of supply and demand as; in a competitive market, the
unit price for a particular good such as labor will vary until it settles at a
point where the quantity demanded will equal the quantity supplied resulting in
an economic equilibrium.

1. WHY are conditions of admission to
medical schools in Ghana still the way they were 30 years ago? If we continue
to treat the training of doctors and other health professional this way, we
will continue to have these problems unabated.

2. Students who have been rejected to enter
medical schools in Ghana on the basis that they do not meet the entry
requirements are highly sought after by foreign medical schools, and they excel
when they do enter those foreign schools, WHY?

3. The Universities/Government continue to
tell us that there are limited resources to train doctors, yet medical schools
admit a number of foreign nationals from neighboring countries merely because
they can afford to pay for the full course of their training.

4. WHY can’t government make funds available
in the form of loans to students who want to go to medical school on fee paying
basis? Instead of admitting foreign nationals because they are fee paying
students.

5. WHY aren’t there systems for
paramedics/auxiliary health workers who so wish to upgrade themselves to
general practitioners and the like. As is the case in other countries.

6. Isn’t our health an equally important
enough resource that needs protection too? We have laws that prohibit services
such as the Police, Prison Service and the Military from embarking on strike
mainly because their absence from duty will expose our citizens to danger. WHY
has enacting a law to prohibit health workers from going on strike become more
difficult than space science?