According to the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), it will soon be required to reject test findings that have not been approved by competent laboratory doctors.
It claims it will carry out the threat if the ongoing standoff at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) between the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) and the two laboratory doctors deployed there is not addressed by the Ministry of Health.
At the conclusion of the 3rd National Executive Council last Sunday, the President of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Ankobea, spoke to the media.
“When the going gets tough, the GMA and its members may be obliged to reject test findings without the approval of trained laboratory physicians,” he cautioned.
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The organization also demanded that any threats, intimidation, and assaults aimed toward Laboratory Physician residents and specialists by medical laboratory scientists be immediately stopped.
Dr. Frank Ankobea stated, “All other types of threats (including but not limited to murder and physical harm), harassment, and violence aimed toward these Laboratory Physician residents and Specialists should end immediately.”
Restore laboratory doctors who have been ejected from different hospital laboratories.
The GMA also wants laboratory physicians who were thrown out of different hospital labs due to conflicts between scientists and doctors to be reinstated.
On Thursday, May 20, 2021, the Komfo Anokye Chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists launched a one-week sit-down strike to demand that the decision to transfer two laboratory physicians to the hospital’s laboratory department be reversed.
Following the one-week sit-down strike, members of the chapter announced an indefinite strike, which began on Thursday, May 27, 2021.
As a result of the developments, the GMA is demanding that all resident medical doctors in and training with the Ghana College of Physicians Surgeons and the West African Colleges of Physicians, as well as those pursuing Laboratory Medicine programs, be given “unrestricted full access to all relevant laboratory spaces within the various teaching sites.”
Source: CITINEWSROOM
