The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists’ Public Relations Officer, Dr. Dennis Adu-Gyasi, informed Citi News that the association’s strike at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the Ashanti Region and other regions of the nation has been called off.
He claims that the decision was made on June 1, 2021, following a meeting with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, which vowed to address their concerns.
“We can confirm that the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists’ strike, which began at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, was called off today [Tuesday, June 1] at Parliament, when the professional body’s leaders met with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and presented their issues to them. Parliament also decided that we should submit a report to them in order to fix the issue. So, based on the meeting conducted this morning at the Oceanic Hotel in Accra, the leadership has agreed, and we anticipate members to resume work tomorrow [Wednesday]”, Dennis Adu-Gyasi told citinewsroom.com.
On Thursday, May 20, 2021, members of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital went on strike to protest the hospital’s decision to maintain two medical experts in critical positions at the facility’s Laboratory Services Directorate.
Ernest Badu Boateng, Chairman of the KATH Chapter of the organisation, stated the Ministry of Health and the hospital’s administration had a one-week window to relocate the medical professionals.
If the authorities do not alter their minds, he warned, all medical laboratory scientists in the nation would gather to discuss next steps.
As a result of this failure, other regional branches of the organization joined the KATH chapter in a full-fledged strike.
During the walkout, the lab scientists ignored an injunction issued by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to stop the strike and make themselves accessible for discussions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dennis Adu-Gyasi, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, claims that the leadership has yet to completely transmit the decision to call off the strike to all of the association’s regional chapters.
“We’re trying to engage members as much as possible on multiple platforms in order to urge them to follow the call to return to work as soon as feasible. However, because workers may have traveled outside of their stations, we will instead appeal with management to understand those who may not be able to go to work on Wednesday. We don’t anticipate people to take advantage of this and stay in their homes indefinitely, but we can affirm that the strike has been called off,” he said.
GMA is waging a war on lab scientists.
The Ghana Medical Association, which opposes the lab scientists’ action, has said that the medical professionals assigned to the KATH lab unit have every right to operate there.
In the midst of tensions between laboratory scientists and doctors, the GMA has also asked that laboratory physicians who were pushed out of various hospital laboratories be reinstated.
The group singled out the Komfo Anokye, Korle-Bu, and Cape Coast Teaching hospitals in a communiqué published at the end of its last National Executive Council meeting.
We’ll reject findings that haven’t been approved by a competent lab physician.
The GMA has also threatened to reject lab findings unless they have been approved by authorized laboratory physicians.
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 physicians deployed there is not addressed by the Ministry of Health.
Source: CITINEWSROOM
