work-to-rule threat by doctors....Back-up plans in place

Daily Graphic, (front page), Wednesday, May 20/09

Story Emmanuel Bonney & Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

HOSPITAL administrators in Accra have put in place contingency plans to cater for patients after 5 p.m. should doctors adhere to their one week work-to-rule plan.
Among the measures is an arrangement for nurses, medical assistants and other health workers to hold the fort while the doctors are away in the night.
The measures have been adopted by the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, as well as the Ridge and the La General hospitals.
A visit to the Ridge and the La General hospitals yesterday night showed that all the doctors were at post, though the action was supposed to start at that time.
The authorities of both hospitals said they were yet to be notified of the action of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and indicated that all the doctors expected to work after 5 p.m. had reported for work.
However, checks at Korle-Bu revealed that while some of the doctors were on duty on Monday night, others failed to turn up.
The Chief Executive of the hospital, Prof Nii Otu Nartey, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic, said the government was making efforts to address the problems of doctors and expressed the hope that the matter would be resolved by the end of the week.
He said apart from using nurses and other health personnel in the event of full action by the doctors, “some of us will go to the wards to assist as part of our contingency plan”.
According to him, emergency cases were taken care of on Monday night.
Amina Alhassan, a relative of one of the patients on admission, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that her relative had been attended to in the night.
A press release from the GMA said doctors across the country would embark on the strike from 5 p.m. on Monday, May 18 to May 24, 2009.
According to the release, the GMA had decided to adopt the action for one week to press home its demand for the review of doctors’ salaries and conditions of service and further threatened to attend to only emergencies for another one week if no appropriate response was received from the authorities.
The action was expected to be undertaken by both senior and junior doctors nation-wide after negotiations, according to the GMA, had come to a stalemate between it and the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
According to the association, salaries of doctors had not been reviewed since 2006, in spite of several attempts to get those issues rectified.
However, sources at the various hospitals visited disclosed that doctors were still at post because they were yet to receive a communiqué from the GMA calling on them to embark on the action.
At the La General Hospital, the Health Service Administrator, Mr Adam M. Handi, said the hospital was yet to receive any notice from the GMA on the action.
He said so far all the 10 doctors, made up of five specialists and five medical officers, as well as six house officers, were duly at post.
Mr Handi said the hospital had, however, developed a contingency plan following a meeting with the regional directorate of health, saying that the plan would enable the hospital to provide basic health services, although it would not be able to cater for surgery and other serious cases which demanded the services of doctors.
At the Ridge Hospital, the Administrator, Mr Kwame Opoku, said the hospital was also yet to receive a formal notification from the GMA on its intended action.
He said in spite of that, the hospital had to put out a contingency measure in case the doctors carried out their treat.
He, however, expressed the hope that nothing of the sort would happen, adding, however, that in the event that the doctors embarked on any action, the hospital would be forced not to admit new patients after 5 p.m.
Enoch Darfah Frimpong reports from Kumasi that many patients who reported at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) on Tuesday morning had to wait till after 8 a.m. before doctors started attending to their medical needs.
The patients, some of whom had arrived at the hospital from outside Kumasi at night, hung around miserably till after 8 a.m. before they were attended to by the doctors.
By 5 p.m. on Monday when the work-to-rule strategy started, some doctors on duty at KATH started leaving the consulting rooms and the hospital for their homes.
A tour of the hospital indicated a 50:50 situation as some of the doctors were at post, while some of them had left.
But for some emergency cases which were attended to by some of the doctors, there were no doctors in the consulting rooms and the wards before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
A source at the hospital indicated that the management had instituted a contingency plan to deal with emergency cases while the doctors were away.
Some of the doctors explained that the matter was in the hands of the GMA and refused to comment.
From Ho, Tim Dzamboe reports that a visit to the Ho Municipal Hospital yesterday showed that the Medical Superintendent, Dr K. G. Normanyo, was the only doctor at post taking care of patients, with the support of medical assistants.
Some of the doctors were said to be on course and others off to Accra for a meeting. Cuban doctors assisting at the hospital were said to be attending an annual review conference.
From Wa, George Folley Quaye & Chris Nunoo report that work was going on smoothly in all the hospitals visited by the Daily Graphic in the Upper West Region.
At the Wa Regional Hospital, the authorities were said to be in a meeting when the Daily Graphic called but one of the doctors who wanted to remain anonymous said all the doctors were at post.
In the district hospitals which were contacted on phone and whose spokespersons did not want to be named, the explanation was that the peculiar nature of the region made it difficult to abandon patients to their fate.
“We are not trying to stab the GMA in the back but our situation is different, as people in other parts of the country can access private health facilities,” they told the Daily Graphic.
At the Koforidua Regional Hospital, all the 34 doctors, most of them housemen, were at post rendering services ranging from consultancy to surgery when the Daily Graphic visited the facility yesterday, reports A. Kofoya Tetteh.
As of midday, most of the patients had been catered for, leaving a few of them waiting in front of the consulting rooms for their turn.
Most of the patients, especially those from the surrounding villages such as Akwadum, Nankese and Sekesua, the Daily Graphic talked to did not even know about the doctors’ planned action.
When contacted on the issue, the Medical Administrator of the hospital, Dr Obeng Apori, said work at the hospital had been going on normally, with doctors responding to urgent calls for duty, particularly in the night.
He, however, said the doctors hoped to hear good news to resolve the problem by 2 p.m. yesterday as indicated by some radio stations.
“Koforidua is not like the big cities where patients do not know the doctors and because we are familiar with the patients it is difficult for us not to treat them when they report here,” he stated, adding, “It is not that we in Koforidua are not sensitive to the plight of doctors but the peculiar situation we find ourselves in makes it difficult for us to withdraw our services between specific periods while patients we are familiar with come here for treatment.”
Kwame Asiedu Marfo reports from Takoradi that medical doctors at the Takoradi Hospital were working 24 hours when he visited the facility yesterday.
“Nothing has changed before and now,” the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Kofi Sagoe, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Dr Sagoe said the doctors were not working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and that they were going about their normal duties 24 hours a day.
He said all the outpatients had been cleared for the day, while those at the Casualty Ward were being seen by the doctors.
At the time the Daily Graphic visited the hospital, there were no outpatients waiting to see doctors. All of them had been seen and they had returned to their various homes, leaving only those on admission.
From Cape Coast, Shirley Aseidu-Addo reports that doctors were attending to emergency cases after 5 p.m. when the Daily Graphic visited the Central Regional Hospital and nothing showed that the doctors were on strike as patients were being attended to.
One of the nurses said the doctors had worked since 8 a.m.
“They also take care of all emergencies even after 5 p.m.,” she said.
From Tamale, Vincent Amenuveve reports that members of the Northern Divisional branch of the GMA at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) have stated that although they are on a work-to-rule action from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., they consider emergency cases at the Hospital.