Junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have officially called off their 3-day-long strike.
[contextly_sidebar id=”u31TPLZ324Eis2PKN2kAWTdfr1N634g2″]The doctors went on strike on Monday to protest against the non-payment of their salaries which they say has been in arrears for 9 months.
They also claimed that all efforts to get government to pay the salaries had failed, forcing them to down their tools in protest.
The junior doctors however promised to return to work once all the money they were owed was paid to them and it appears they have stuck to their word and called off their strike.
In an interview with Citi News, the Public Relations Officer for KATH, Kwame Frimpong revealed that a cheque had been released by the Ministry of Finance this week for the payment of the salaries of the dctors.
“We directed the department to issue individual cheques to [the junior doctors] to pay all the arrears,” he told Citi News.
On Wednesday evening, this directive was complied with and after the junior doctors received their cheques, they called off the strike.
The junior doctors resumed work on Thursday.
Meanwhile it is unclear yet whether junior doctors at the Cape Coast Hospital in the Central Region have also resumed work.
The doctors at that hospital also laid down their tools on early this week over the same reasons.
Threat of another strike in July
In a related development, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has threatened to embark on a strike in July if government fails to sign and negotiate conditions of service for its members.
The GMA in a communique accused government of “not taking any step to solve the issue of lack of conditions of service” for its members “four months” after serving government its initial notice.
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By Selassie A. Amissah Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana