Junior doctors threaten to strike over salary arrears

Junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have threatened to lay down their tools indefinitely by the end of March.

This is in reaction to the non-payment of their 6-month salary since the beginning of their housemanship in October 2020.

Previous experiences suggest at least, a 2-month delay in remuneration due to uncompleted registration and paperwork.

However, the current six-month delay has generated some uneasy calm among the junior doctors who have taken to social media to protest.

They have flooded their WhatsApp statuses with ‘PayUsByMarch’ expressions to express their grievances over the development.

A first-year officer at KATH who travelled to Germany to work in a hospital for an annual exchange programme recounted the attention he enjoyed from his foreign counterparts.

Speaking to Accra-based Joy FM on condition of anonymity, the doctor said even the working conditions abroad showed a clear difference from what he was experiencing in Ghana.

“There is a clear-cut difference in attention and compensation that junior doctors in the western world enjoy, as compared to Africa, specifically Ghana.

“In Germany, I never had to chase anything, unlike in Ghana where I have to pursue blood test and test results. Weekends are not resting days for these doctors. House officers literally run the entire hospital in the absence of specialists,” he said.

He disclosed that it has been more frightening with COVID-19 staring them right in the face.

“Doctors of KATH work in teams with house officers performing most of the laborious tasks. These doctors are not only at risk of being the first contacts to the exposure of any disease that presents to the hospital, but are also responsible for the day-to-day management of the patients, along with the nurses,” he continued.

He revealed, “Other house officers in other hospitals had already been paid their salaries and that was very unfair.”

Amid the strife, he still affords to take care of his basic needs and make some savings.

“My parents don’t mind stepping in but I am of a more self-sufficient design, so that makes it quite some way. I really hate to be a bother to them and I feel it is my time to give back all they invested in me,” he bemoaned.

Meanwhile, the Director of Communications at the hospital, Kwame Frimpong, has said the management of the hospital has extended a salary advance package for affected doctors.

“Management based on past experience realised the processing of salaries could delay and therefore gave them the option for salary advance for all those who are in need,” he said.

The effect of health workers laying down their tools could be dire especially, in the current fight against COVID-19.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is trusted as the most reliable referral healthcare facility in the Ashanti region.