{"id":1338,"date":"2018-05-02T09:44:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T09:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.wordpress.com\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2018-05-02T09:44:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T09:44:01","slug":"strike-by-medical-laboratory-scientists-after-21st-may-blame-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/02\/strike-by-medical-laboratory-scientists-after-21st-may-blame-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Strike by Medical Laboratory Scientists after 21st May: Blame Politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Health minister is heard on Adom FM to have said that the policy is not possible because of the doctors. So even the promise of getting it done by <\/em>the first quarter of the year was a lie.\u00a0 If you will not get involved in the strike to push matters down the throat, we stand to lose. Don’t sit on the fence. Rally behind the leadership of GAMLS. <\/em>
\nAluta, Aluta”<\/em><\/p>\n

The statement captured above is circulating on the national and regional social platforms of Medical Laboratory Professionals in Ghana. It induced this piece in me since I have been involved for a while in this battle. From my judgement and dealing with the governments in Charge over the period, I conclude by saying that, if the action is effected after the 21st of May 2018 by the professionals, the Ghanaian POLITICIAN will have to be BLAMED.<\/p>\n

Since 2012 and at the start of the Single Spine Salary Structure, medical laboratory professionals have been worse placed. An example is the Technical Officer group. Agitations were made and then Rojo Mettle Nunoo settled the matter with letters to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC). Till date, that correction of the anomaly where the laboratory is worse paid is yet to be corrected let alone to talk of the arrears for the professionals. A very good reason to have activated labour unrest but the leadership of the professional group has over the years held the people. They cannot anymore. The POLITICIAN causing the mess must be blamed.<\/p>\n

A lot has been shared on why lack of structures to strengthen laboratories in Ghana is a danger to our health delivery system. Investment of 1 million US dollars by the US government to make sure these structures are put in place for the benefit of the Ghanaian populace is not enough to let the politician see the urgency to resolve the matters for the policy to be used. This document helps laboratories to be set up in such a\u00a0 way that results from laboratories produced from any part of the country will not differ because standardization\u00a0will be assured when the policy is allowed to work.<\/p>\n

The problem holding the policy is that the politician is not ready to hold the bull by the horn and let Ghana operate just as it is done internationally. In Ghana, doctors who do not have the training and license to practice medical laboratory science have vowed to be the only people who can manage and direct the affairs of laboratory services. They say if you even hold PhD in any medical laboratory qualification, you cannot assume the headship of the laboratory services in Ghana. Telling the truth to medical doctors that this cannot happen is what has brought us this far since 2013.<\/p>\n

Ghana has one of the best laws in the world to protect the public against illegal practitioners (ACT 857, PART 1). In our jurisdiction, if you want to practice any form of laboratory medicine, you need a license from the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC). It is simple to ask the doctors who want to be in the laboratories to go and get such licenses and come to fight for the position they seek. It is absurd for anyone to think that you will come and sit as a consultant, I will perform my test and hand it over for you to sign before it is released to patients. That is risky for us as a nation. Let the laboratory person be responsible for their actions and the results they generate. Is this difficult to tell doctors? Or as the doctors threatened they will shut the health system if the policy is launched is what everyone is playing to? Politicians why?<\/p>\n

I was part of a team that went to see one of the top\u00a0government officials at the seat of government as the then Chief of\u00a0 Staff directed to get our matter heard and possibly resolved. During discussions, I got the impression the matter was resolved. Just when we exited the then Flagstaff House in August 2016, I sent the emails that we were tasked to send. Maybe I am yet to get the replies to help resolve the matter. I knew very well from that point that “TRUST not THE POLITICIAN”. Since then, I listen to them with one ear and make my own decisions hoping they will change.<\/p>\n

During the strike in August 2016, meeting the minister at the labour commission was almost like, “the matter is resolved”. You get to the office of the health minister and the tables turn because a super-power has also spoken and with that, a WHOLE NATION could suffer. Who cares? That’s the politician for you.<\/p>\n

It has not been different with the current Health Minister who is working so hard that he can hardly be seen in his office. Anytime you check on him, he is working for Ghana if not in Geneva in another meeting in another country. He is really listening and working and I wonder why they bypassed him with the acknowledgement of the best Minister? Several contacts have been made and even he has gone back on his promise of getting the matter resolved in the first quarter of the year. Probably he spoke without understanding the matter then. The reality of politicians not able to speak the truth to medical doctors interested in running down public laboratories for their private ones to thrive has not dawned on him.<\/p>\n

The recent issue of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) where there is a component that clearly wants to utilize the expertise and pay less for their services is what breaks my heart. I am gathering my facts and will talk about it in due course. If people to be taken on that module are to work full time as any other qualified professional, then I am afraid the government is setting a precedence and the private sector will never change from the abuse already existing in the labour front.<\/p>\n

The health summit in 2015 revealed the medical laboratory as the unit with the worse understaff burden. Since 2012, there are several qualified professionals and no one is interested to get them employed into the mainstream. Thinking of NABCO? Such knee-jerk approaches are our woes as a nation. Get professionals at their qualified levels, enable them to raise their own funds to pay themselves and get the systems running. You will be amazed of the outcome than to hook everyone to the government’s apron string.<\/p>\n

If the STRIKE HAPPENS, I WILL BLAME THE POLITICIAN WHO IS NOT READY TO SPEAK THE TRUTH IN THE HEALTH SECTOR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Health minister is heard on Adom FM to have said that the policy is not possible because of the doctors. So even the promise of getting it done by the first quarter of the year was a lie.\u00a0 If you will not get involved in the strike to push matters down the throat, we stand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adugyasidennis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}