Management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana’s second-largest health referral facility, has appealed to the Hospital’s medical laboratory scientists to call off the strike action.

“Management appreciates your invaluable role in the healthcare team as we strive to achieve the best for our clients and this Hospital as a Center of Excellence,” Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), noted.

A statement signed by the CEO and issued in Kumasi, a copy made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), encouraged them to avoid any action or inaction likely to breach the industrial peace and hinder the care of patients.

It emphasized that the Management was fully committed to cooperating with relevant stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the issues raised by the Hospital’s branch of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS).

“Management wishes to urge the leadership of GAMLS to reserve any further concerns until a final solution is achieved through the intervention of the Honourable Minister for Health and all relevant stakeholders within the shortest possible period,” the statement said.

Members of the KATH branch of the GAMLS on Thursday, May 20, commenced a sit-down strike to register their protest against what they described as wrongful postings of two Medical Officers, Lesley Osei and Eunice Agyemang Ahmed, to the Laboratory Services Directorate (LSD) as "Clinical" Haematologists.

Mr Ernest Badu-Boateng, the KATH Chapter Chairman of GAMLS, in an interview with the GNA, said various protest letters was written to the Hospital’s Management, expressing the Association’s displeasure of the development.

“We want these Medical Officers to be removed from the LSD as soon as possible,” he insisted.

The GAMLS Branch Chairman said the impasse was lingering on for almost two years without any positive response from the KATH Management and vowed that they would continue to lay down their tools until the right thing was done.

“The medical laboratory scientists are qualified enough to work on their own and man the LSD without the medical officers,” Mr Badu-Boateng stated.

The entire Membership of the GAMLS-KATH Chapter would continue with the sit-down strike until the Association’s demands were met.

The Association, he said, would resist any attempt on the part of Management or the Board to create a new unit within the current LSD structure called "Clinical Haematology Unit for these Medical Officers.”

Medical laboratory scientists play a critical role in the healthcare delivery system, including examining and analysing blood, body fluids, tissues and cells.

They are also charged with the responsibility of relaying test results to physicians and cross-matching blood for transfusion.