KATH Doctors Call Of Strike...Wants Board Dissolved

Striking Junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have called off their industrial action with immediate effect. The decision to end the two weeks strike action was taken on Sunday after a five-member committee inspected work on the hospital facilities. The indefinite strike action by the doctors was in protest against poor working conditions (irritable power and water supplies as well as the frequent breakdown of essential surgical equipment) and the deplorable state of the only major hospital in Kumasi. As part of several interventions from government to get the junior doctors to rescind their decision, government on Wednesday, March 21st, announced that an amount of one million cedis was to be made available to help bail out the hospital. Minister of Health Alban Bagbin also instructed officials of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to release two million cedis (GH�2m) to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for the purchase of essential drugs. The junior doctors were later joined by surgeons of the hospital in their strike, but it appears the intervention by the government in improving facilities and utilities at the hospital has yielded the required dividends. The junior doctors, have however, given management a one-month ultimatum to address all issues raised else they will stay off the wards again.