Health Practitioners, particularly Doctors, in one of the largest hospitals in Ghana, Korle Bu Teacher Hospital, have threatened the Government to withdraw their services starting the 13th of this month, February 2023 if certain conditions outlined to the government are not met. The management of the health facility has turned a deaf ear to the plea of its employees for almost a year now.
A protest letter sighted by Newsbitgh.com from Doctors of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital earlier today stated that the management of the health facility has been very discriminatory in settling of salary arrears. This salary arrears is full 1 year plus a month.
The protest letter also has in it that the management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital was told, according to doctors, not to pay the 25% of the arrears until there was a clear understanding of the dates for the other arrears.
They continue by saying that it appears that the departments now have responsibility for paying the arrears rather than a single pool of funds.
The doctors asserted that decentralizing the payment would harm doctors employed in departments with tight budgets.
The doctors claim that as part of a road map to stop providing services, they anticipate management to announce specific deadlines for the payment of the arrears and to make this payment centralized rather than departmental between January 30 and February 5, 2023.
The doctors have also added that if their conditions are not being met, they would withdraw service to the Outpatient department as well as elective surgeries and procedures. This will be followed by the refusal to attend to emergencies till all inpatients are discharged.
Below is the full Protest letter by the doctors in The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
