The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has called on the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and other labour unions to appreciate the global challenges of budget constraints facing governments and not to punish the ordinary sick Ghanaian with strikes.

In a statement to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, the party said Ghana was no exception to the global challenges and so urged the GMA and other labour unions to bear with the efforts being put in place by the government to address their problems.

It bemoaned a situation in Kumasi where a hypertensive patient died because he was denied health care at a government health facility because of the doctors’ strike.

The party’s Chairman, Dr Henry Herbert Lartey, who signed the statement, said the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure had generated problems with unions largely because of misunderstandings that could be attributed to the lack of education of the policy.

On the occasion of this year’s May Day, he saluted workers for their enormous contribution towards the growth and development of the nation over the years.

He said there was no doubt that Ghana’s present level of progress and development largely hinged on contributions of the working people.

The statement urged workers to go on working hard to increase productivity for the growth and uninterrupted development of the nation.