The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Appiah Denkyira has made a passionate appeal to the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to reconsider their decision to intensify their strike action by today, and go back to work since their Conditions of Service were still under negotiation.

He said, “most Ghanaians are at the mercy of doctors, hence the need for them to exercise patience to ensure a smooth negotiation of their Conditions of Service.

“We need to be positive since negotiations on the Conditions of Service are still ongoing, and there is always a chance to bargain,” he said.

He said the GHS Council had also met the GMA and had a conversation with them in its bid to end the current strike action and minimise its effect on patients.

Dr. Denkyira stated that the GHS had, in the meantime, linked up with the private sector doctors by giving them access to public health facilities and encouraged them to bear more of the load of public health needs in the capital.

“At the district level, we have asked medical assistants and retired doctors to offer a helping hand to patients at the government hospitals,” he said.

The GHS Director General, however, called on government to “give a listening ear to the doctors in order to ease the tension in the health sector”.

The GMA had over the past week, withdrawn Out-Patients Department (OPD) services as the first phase of their actions to demand from government, better Conditions of Service.

Today would mark the beginning of their second phase of the strike, which would be the withdrawal of both OPD and emergency services.