All doctors who work in public hospitals or employed in the public sector must cease all forms of industrial action NOW and return to full patient care as stipulated under their contract of employment. They must simultaneously order their negotiators to engage their employer, the Government of Ghana, under the mediation of the National Labour Commission, for the two week period stipulated under the law. Each and every doctor who feels so inclined must serve a notice of resignation of employment stipulated in their letter of engagement, and duly resign from the public health service if not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations between Government and their leaders.<\/p>\n
Everybody else, from President Mahama, to Stanislaw Dogbe to Kwabena Agyepong; from Chairman Kwame Sefa to Kaba; from Nana Akomea to Ametor Kwame; from Sampson Lardi to Kwesi Pratt; must shut up and stop whipping up public sentiment for or against doctors as if what we are confronted with is a theoretical debate for which the only thing that matters is the cleverness of the competing sound bites<\/p>\n
The foregoing sums up Tarzan\u2019s Take on the matter of the ongoing impasse between doctors who work in the public sector and their employer, the Government of Ghana.\u00a0 It is a position founded on the laws of Ghana and the level of decorous behavior that a society purporting to operate by the norms of civilized behavior and orderly conduct judges itself by. It is that which differentiates a Sane Republic from a Banana Republic or an Upside Republic as my nephew Kojo Yankah has described Ghana.<\/p>\n
In case anyone wants to know, this is the same view I expressed more than a decade ago when now Hon. Edward Omane\u00a0 Boamah led junior doctors to trerrorise the people of Ghana and President Kufuor\u2019s government about their remuneration. Then, as now, I deemed the doctors strike as illegal,\u00a0 and believed, as I do now that any doctor not fulfilling his\/her contract of employment was not entitled to their full pay. Period.<\/p>\n
Before anyone interprets my position as \u201canti-doctors\u201d, hold your gun right there.\u00a0 I am actually of the view that doctors who have chosen to stay here in Ghana, especially those who have opted to work in the public hospitals and clinics, are the real heroes and patriots of our time and most deserving of our gratitude and mollification.\u00a0 If we cannot praise them and recognise the sacrifice they have made, we have no excuse whatsoever to mock and make them the Frankenstein monsters of our times.<\/p>\n
On the present count, two of every three doctors Ghana has produced, since Osagyefo opened the Ghana Medical School in 1963, are working outside these shores, and thank you, are doing very well professionally and financially. It is imperative therefore that we do everything to keep the patriotic ones her and ensure that we all live our appointed tenure here on earth and preempt any unforeseen or premature exit.<\/p>\n
On the scale of Tarzan\u2019s \u201cOpportunity Cost of Ghanaian Human Capital Index (OCGHCI)|, Doctors rank highest followed by nurses and then Technical-school trained plumbers and then Electricians.\u00a0 This index measures the employability of Ghanaian skills in the Developed countries which are otherwise struggling to keep out economic migrants from developing countries. Ironically, many of these countries, who are generously giving us money to build shiny new hospitals, are at the same time enticing our qualified doctors and nurses to come to their countries to shore up their own crumbling health services.<\/p>\n
Drs. Edward Omane Boamah of the ruling NDC and Afriyie of AFAG are at the top of OGCHCI scale along with all the doctors working in Ghana now. Samuel George, SammyAwuku, Atik Mohammed, Allotey Jacobs, Kwamena Duncan, Kabila Bomfeh, and all the myriads of social commentators speaking on behalf of the government and the doctors, will I am afraid be at the bottom of the scale. They should be helping we the people of Ghana to retain the doctors who have chosen to stay; and they can do this best by keeping their uninformed and prejudiced noses out of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
When and how can workers strike?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Labour Act of 2003(Act 651) has laid out a very comprehensive and elaborate procedure which must be followed for the settlement of industrial disputes. The whole of sub-Part II of the law sets out the road map, from settlement by negotiation, through to the arbitration processes and institution of compulsory settlements if deemed necessary.<\/p>\n Section 159 of the Labour Act sets out the requirement for the notification of an intention to take strike action: 159(a) sets out the pre-requisite requirement as follows: \u201cWhere: (a) the parties fail to agree to refer the dispute to voluntary arbitration, or (b) the dispute remains unresolved at the end of the arbitration proceedings, either party intending to tale strike action or institute lockout shall give written notice of this to the other party and the Commission, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the more important features of our current labour laws is the right to strike by some key workers. Sections 162 of the law make it clear and without equivocation that some workers, who are employed in what is termed \u201cEssential Services\u201d, CANNOT go on strike, period. Instead the law makes provision for a quick, and if necessary, COMPULSORY SETTLEMENT of any dispute by the Labour Commission using procedures set out in section 164.<\/p>\n The Labour Law defines \u201cEssential Services\u201d <\/strong>as including \u201careas in an establishment where an action could result in a particular or total loss of life or pose danger to public health and safety and such other services as the Minister may by legislative instrument determine…\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n Has the ongoing strike by doctors resulted in loss of life? Undoubtedly YES. Does the same action pose a danger to public health and safety?\u00a0 The answer must be YES. YES.\u00a0 Does the Health Service constitute and essential service under the labour laws of Ghana?\u00a0 YES, YES, YES. So is the strike action by doctors\u2019 illegal under the laws of Ghana? YES, YES, YES, YES.<\/p>\n The majority of Ghanaians are more Christian than those from whom the religion originated and from where it came to us. Whilst Jews are still waiting for their Messiah, and the Europeans who brought the faith to us have come to embrace LGBT as consistent with Christianity, most of us Ghanaian cling to Christ as the only one who can affect our daily lives in a positive or negative way.\u00a0 \u201cNyame nhyira wo\u201d & \u201cY3 da Nyame ase\u201d have now taken the place of \u201cWel Done\u201d and \u201cThank You\u201d in our daily use of language<\/p>\n The faith that the majority if we hold onto, including I guess many of the doctors and members of the government is founded on the sanctity of human life. The fount of that faith is not that Christ died, but THAT HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. \u00a0As far Christians or worshippers of any other faith know, no one but JC has achieved RESURRECTION except by his own hand and his own deed.<\/p>\n That is why I hold the position that, no matter the rightness of their cause, nor the provocation of social commentary, our admirable and patriotic doctors, must never use the threat of unforeseen death as a negotiating tool\u00a0 whether planned or as a consequence f their action<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wants to go to heaven, But no one wants to die. All we want is (sic) Equal Rights and Justice\u201d Our doctors will do well to adopt Peter Tosh\u2019s \u00a0\u00a0seminal lyrics to guide their negotiations with their employers.\u00a0 We Ghanaians believe in the justness of their cause even as we weep about the unforeseen deaths from their actions.<\/p>\n The title of this piece is an adaptation of John Dunne\u2019s classic poem,<\/p>\n \u201cNo man is an island\u2019<\/p>\n Entire of itself;<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n Any man\u2019s death diminishes me;<\/p>\n Because I am part of mankind<\/p>\n Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls<\/p>\n It tolls for thee \u201c<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anyone of us involved in the present dispute, be it President Mahama, Haruna Iddrisu, Stansilaw Dogbe., Dr Jackson Yankson ,\u00a0 the NLC\u00a0 and various social commentators and self-appointed negotiators and spin doctors, must be cautioned that they cannot\u00a0 afford t put their own or any other Ghanaian\u2019s life at risk for the luxury of demonstrating their machismo. God BLESS OUR Homeland Ghana<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n