MoH negotiates with doctors

Centre Spread, May 7, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Ministry of Health has begun negotiations with the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) over unpaid allowances and stalled salary talks for doctors working in the country’s public health institutions.
The negotiations have become necessary because of the decision by junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi to embark on a strike.
The junior doctors claim that their fuel allowances have not been paid for the past 18 months. They also claim that since 2006 salary negotiations had been stalled.
Also involved in the negotiations are the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), among other stakeholders.
Leading the GMA team is the President of the association, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful.
In his brief remarks before the commencement of the negotiations behind closed doors, the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adja Yankey, said the government was committed to solving the problems associated with the payment of doctors’ unpaid allowances and stalled salary negotiations.
“It is not fair for the country’s doctors to be treated this way,” he said, explaining that officials of both KATH and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital had started the payment of allowances due the medical doctors.
Dr Yankey, however appealed to the GMA to be reasonable in its demands and expectations, bearing in mind the country’s economy.
He said he expected the negotiations to last for about two days.
He said efforts were also being made by the government to implement the single spine salary structure (SSSS) to ensure equal pay for equal work.
Speaking to newsmen later, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere, said the issue of salary negotiations with the GMA had to be tackled carefully so that the results would not have a negative effect on other groups in the health sector and other sectors of the economy.
He said it was for that reason that the government was committed to using the SSSS as a holistic approach for the solution of salary problems in the country.