STARTING FROM 6am today, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi will stop attending to patients, who are seeking treatment at the medical facility.
This unfortunate development follows the decision of the Komfo Anokye Doctors Association to lay down their tools indefinitely, in protest of a one-week eviction notice that has been given to some KATH doctors at Denyame in Kumasi.
Declaring the industrial action after Komfo Anokye Doctors Association emergency meeting on Tuesday, chairman of the association, Dr. Michael Leat, said about 20 doctors from KATH are being evicted from their homes unjustifiably.
He said the affected KATH doctors have only been told to leave their homes within just one-week period, adding that the entire doctors at KATH have also decided to partake in the strike action as a show of support to their colleagues.
Notice of Absence Letter
“At our emergency meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, members resolved the following: It is scandalous to even consider the eviction of doctors from their homes while alternate arrangements have not been made.
“The persistent threats to cut the electricity and water supply to the homes of doctors in order to forcefully push them out, is inhumane and not acceptable in any sense.
“We are thereby notifying management of our collective decision to absent from work in Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital from Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at 0600 hours till this matter is completely resolved.
“We encourage management as our employers, to pursue all avenues to resolve this fiasco which is a never-event in any developed community,” a notice of absence note by the KATH doctors to management, dated March 12, 2024, read.
Briefing Journalists
Dr. Michael Leat, who visibly looked unhappy, explained to journalists that the doctors are not happy to lay down their tools for innocent patients to suffer, but they have been forced by the prevailing circumstances to declare strike.
“If you want to develop the land where the doctors reside at Denyame, just relocate us to a proper place. But if you give me just one-week to relocate then I will leave and look for accommodation,” he lamented.
According to him, if the doctors don’t have a proper place to live, definitely it would affect them physically and emotionally, asking that, “If I’m not well, how will I take care of someone who is sick and seeking treatment from me?”
The Komfo Anokye Doctors Association Chairman also stated that, “I can’t offer service when I’m being stressed,” adding that until the issue at hand is properly and completely resolved, the doctors would not return to work.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi