Accra, March 29, GNA - The National Executive Committee (NEC) of Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has announced the immediate total withdrawal of their services from Saturday, May 1.

A statement issued in Accra and jointly signed by Dr E. Adom Winful, President and Dr Frank Serebour, Assistant General Secretary at the end of the Second National Executive Council (NEC) meeting said: "If by Friday, April 30, no appropriate and satisfactory response is received from government, there will be immediate total withdrawal of services from Saturday, May 1."

It said taking cognisance of all the developments that had transpired on the issue of on-call duty facilitation allowance the NEC had declared that "In protest to the deliberate foot dragging on the part of government, all doctors in the public sector shall withdraw all services on the four Mondays in the month of April this year. This starts from Monday, April 5, and all Mondays that follow".

The statement said in May 2009, as part of belated salary negotiations, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the GMA, agreed that effective January 2009, 10 per cent of basic salaries of doctors (including house officers) would be paid to them as on-call duty facilitation allowance.

It said in view of budgetary constraints on government, the allowance would be forfeited in the case of doctors housed in official accommodation while the same amount would be paid to doctors who are not accommodated The statement said the effective date stipulated for the implementation of the MOU was July, 2009.

"The NEC noted that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was the brain behind this agreement, which government had since failed to implement. It had suggested ways in which implementation could be done easily but all these were neglected, "the statement said.

The GMA suggested that all doctors be paid the 10 per cent of their basic salary as the on-call duty facilitation allowance while the deductions of the rent continued by the Controller and Accountant General's Department. The other option was that all rent deductions be stopped while those not being deducted be paid the 10 per cent of their basic salary. The statement said the GMA went the extra mile to compile a list of doctors living in and out of government accommodation to quicken the process of implementation.

However, the MOH indicated that the list had to be compiled by a government entity to make it authentic. "We are inclined to believe that MOH does not have an authentic list and that the delay in implementation is quite deliberate," it said. It said several attempts by the executive of GMA including taking the matter to the National Labour Commission to get the issue resolved had failed. "On March 4, the GMA issued a press statement giving government up to the end of March to fulfil the agreement but has not yielded any fruitful results," the statement said.

It said a letter written on March 25 by the MOH to the Ministry of Finance as a solution, indicated that the information on the accommodation status of doctors from the three Northern Regions had been received and yet to get information from the other regions to enable them compute their entitlements. 29 March 10