Accra, May 21, GNA - A meeting between the government and doctors to continue with negotiations to end the four-day-old work-to-rule action by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has been scheduled for Friday, Deputy General Secretary of the GMA, Dr Frank Serebour, said on Thursday.

He said they were keeping their fingers crossed to see what came out of Thursday's meeting.

The meeting between Deputy Health Minister, Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, and the leadership of the association is expected to find an amicable solution to doctors' demands for higher salaries and improved working conditions.

Dr Serebour said the work-to-rule action now in its fourth day would continue and they would not relent in their action until their demands were met.

"It seems that government is not in a hurry to come to the negotiation table and we are also not in a hurry to go back to work," he said, adding that they were ready for negotiations. An earlier meeting with the deputy minister on Tuesday did not yield any concrete solution.

The GMA is demanding 50 per cent increase in salary while government is proposing six per cent.

The GMA over the weekend said the position of the National Executive Council affected all doctors nationwide and not just junior doctors, noting that "we fully support the adoption of measures to bring some closure to these thorny issues".

The statement noted that since 2006 salaries of doctors had not been reviewed despite several attempts to get these issues resolved. The statement said negotiations had stalled since the last meeting held on Tuesday, May 12, without any consensus on either the salary review or conditions of service.

The National Labour Commission (NLC) has reminded the GMA that its action to "work-to-rule" amounted to a strike that has been embarked upon without recourse to the dispute resolution procedures provided for in the Labour Act.

It further reminded the GMA that its members provided health and hospital services which according to regulation 20(c) of LI 1833 were essential services and were therefore prohibited from resorting to a strike as any such strike could result in loss of life and pose danger to public health and safety. 21 May 09