General News of Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Source: citifmonline.com
Senior staff members of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital want the authorities to allow them to enjoy some benefits as workers of Ghana’s premier hospital, including free medical care.
According to the senior staff workers, they are made to pay the full amount for any form of services, just like any other patient who visits the hospital.
“…What we are saying is that we want to see more being done for staff. We want to get assurance that they are going to do A, B, C, D for you, so even if there is no money, we know there is something in the pipeline for us,” the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Charles Ofei-Palm told Citi News.
He added that, “Our dream is that when we come to hospital, we have the assurance that when we fall here, the hospital will take good care of us just like it is done in any other working institution in Ghana.”
Apart from this demand by the Senior Staff, they had earlier accused the former CEO of the facility and Board Chair, of financial malfeasance, leading to the appointment of a new CEO.
Even though they admit the situation has marginally improved, Charles Ofei-Palm told Citi News more needs to be done to ensure the workers are comfortable.
Health workers across the country have embarked on a series of demonstrations to register their displeasure about poor working conditions in the country.
In December 2014, a group calling itself the Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives staged a demonstration in Ho in the Volta Region, to demand the payment of their accumulated salary arrears.
Over 500 health promotion workers under the Better Ghana Management Services (GMS) in the Upper East region threatened to take legal action against the company over unpaid salaries in 2014.
The workers said the company only paid three months out of the eight months outstanding arrears after the termination of their appointment in March 2014.