Dr. Persie: 'GMA is committing a crime against Ghanaians'

Source: adomonline.com - A member of the National Service Board, Dr. David Persie has likened the activities of highway robbers to the current actions of the striking doctors in the country.

According to him, inasmuch as doctors have the right to strike on their grievances, it does not necessarily mean they should use their conditions of service to put the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian at risk because the consequences of their actions is costing the lives of poor people.

“I don’t see the leadership of the doctors any different from highway robbers who will stop a bus on a highway and rob passengers of their mobile phones, money or even their lives.

“They are just tossing with the lives of Ghanaians and I think they are engaged in an illegality and crime against Ghanaians,” he noted.

Doctors have laid down their tools to demand the provision of a document stating their conditions of service while the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) have also joined a similar cause over what they say are discrepancies in their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure.

President Mahama has said he will not succumb to pressures from the labour front to pay wages or allowances that have not been captured in the budget.

Meanwhile, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei has said their strike is to agitate for their conditions of service to be captured in the 2016 budget.

But Dr. Persie speaking on Accra-based Radio Gold’s ‘Alhaji and Alhaji’ on Saturday charged government to rather give the striking doctors some ultimatum that will compel them to go back to work or sack them if they refuse.

“Doctors have no business to be where they are now if their proposal is indeed for next year. In fact, government should give them an ultimatum that will force them to go back to work or they lose their positions” he asserted.