Opinions of Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Columnist: Agyemang, Stephen

Solution to their Numerous Strikes

Cease Medical Doctors’ Certificates; Solution to their Numerous Strikes

There are thousands of different groups of workers in the world and hence in Ghana in which each group’s service is palatably important for economic growth and development. God has divinely given each and every human being a unique talent to do a certain work to ensure a smooth living on the earth. Some people are talented to be drivers to help in the movement of people and goods from one place to another, some are talented to be farmers to help in getting food, some are talented to be traders to help in the exchange of goods and services, some are talented to be fishermen to help in getting proper food nutrition, some are talented to be teachers to help in acquiring knowledge and skills, some are talented to be plumbers in getting decent accommodations, not only that, some are talented to be musicians to help in getting entertainment for ourselves, some are talented to be lawyers to help in settlement of disputes so that we can live in harmony, some are talented to be preachers to help in living with the words of God, some are talented to be journalists by broadcasting news and information to be available for us, some are also talented to be countries’ leaders to management us as one people and some are talented to be health workers (doctors and nurses) to help in sustaining lives.
All the above-mentioned and not mentioned categories of workers here are equally important to ensure a smooth living on the earth. However the way our paid-educated health workers all of sudden have become money-oriented in the 21st century rather than professional-oriented by going on many strikes is putting all Ghanaians, yes, you and me into a big jeopardy. The current strike by them has nothing to do with politics but it has something to do with sacrificing patients’ lives to make more money from the government by these health workers.
Fortunately or unfortunately, if Akufo Addo who happens to be a flag bearer of NPP urgently needed a medical attention at Korle Bu or Komfo Anokye hospital, these doctors would not ignore their strike action and resume work to save his life. In the same way, if president Mills needed just some minutes of a medical attention in the country for his life to be saved that does not mean these doctors would resume work and help him. Absolutely, the current strike by health workers has nothing to do with politics, therefore if somebody is using it as a political tactic to condemn the President for amicably asking the health workers to resume work in order to save Ghanaians’ lives and later their grievance of not being on the SSSS will be addressed then that person is a killer and a “Second-Hitler” in the country for not showing any sympathy for the way some Ghanaians are losing their lives.
The current strike by health workers is unreasonable, illegal, barbaric and apathetic. Right from primary-one or kindergarten in education and the government of Ghana started spending on these health workers by providing textbooks, chalks, school-buildings and paying teachers to teach them to acquire the current skills they possess for the nation to benefit. Indeed, along their education especially in the tertiary level some paid tuition fess, but remember the government subsidized the fees and provided lecturers to lecture at the expense of Ghanaian taxpayers who are now dying because of this money strike (SSSS migration).
Looking at the expense incurred by the Ghanaian taxpayers and government for these health workers to acquire knowledge and just because of not migrated onto SSSS, they have to make the taxpayers lose their lives, then the government must come out with a final solution by ceasing their certificates immediately after their education. Most doctors are using a “foreign greener pasture” as a panic tactic of being on strikes; “If government doesn’t meet our proposed request then we would punishably leave for another country to work”. In order to stop this technique of taking educational-acquired skills in Ghana to another country and going on unnecessary strikes, the government must cease their certificates immediately after their education until they serve the nation (taxpayers) for twenty-five (25) years. When their certificates are ceased in this way, the numerous inhumane strikes by them would stop. Moreover when they travel without any certificate in hands they will know either they would be employed out there by the foreign governments or not.
In order for this to be effective and efficient, before anyone is admitted to do medicine or any health-related course in a university/college the person must be made to understand that they will serve the nation for twenty-five years regardless of any salary given before their certificates would be released otherwise no admission should be given to waste the taxpayers’ money at the university.
The doctors who are enviously complaining that Ghana is a poor country but MPs and ministers are making more money than they should have been making therefore they want to have an equivalent salary as theirs, they (doctors) must resign from their posts as soon as possible as doctors and put things in order to become MPs and ministers. The government will be hundred percent happy of their resignation in this nature and import more Cuban doctors to replace them instead of going on numerous inhumane strikes for taxpayers in the country to lose their lives.