AGGRIEVED junior doctors of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital who went on strike on May 1, 2009 have resumed work.
The doctors resumed yesterday and patients who converged on the Out-Patients Department, the specialist consulting rooms and the paediatric emergency rooms at the hospital felt relieved when the doctors started arriving for duty from 8.30 a.m.
Anxious to receive medical care and conscious that the striking doctors would resume duty yesterday, many patients who had been denied medical care since May 1 started trooping to the hospital as early as 5 a.m. to enable them to receive early treatment.
The doctors cited accumulated fuel allowances and non-revision of their salaries since 2006 as their main grounds for the industrial action.
The management of KATH last Monday released GH¢400,000.00 to cover the fuel allowance as a way of encouraging the doctors to resume work but they ignored the incentive and continued the strike.
Explaining why they continued to stay away from work, Dr Sarfo Kantanka, the Ashanti Regional President of the Junior Doctors Association, said the issue of non-revision of their salary had not been addressed.
He said there was also the need to consult the entire membership before any firm decision could be taken as to when to resume work.
He said the Ghana Medical Association would meet government officials on May 12, 2009 to negotiate their salary.
He said the outcome of the negotiation would determine whether or not they would continue to be at post.
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