General News of Saturday, 21 October 2017
Source: Citifmonline.com
2017-10-21
File Photo
Some trained veterinary doctors in the country are demanding immediate employment from the government after several months of being jobless.
The doctors have also issued a month’s ultimatum to the government, threatening that they may take legal action if the government fails to meet their demand.
Speaking to Citi News, one of the affected doctors, Dr. Emmanuel Kodua, said all efforts to get the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to address the concerns have proven futile.
He noted that, about 65 doctors, for three batches, were currently yet to be given their appointment letters although they had completed their respective academic studies.
He noted that, although the affected groups had submitted all relevant documents for their postings, they are yet to get a positive response from the government.
“What we are demanding is that, for the first and second batch, we need employment… We have not been given our appointment letters. Meanwhile, we have finished our National Service and even we have sent our report to the registrar as he requested.”
“As we speak now, two batches are in the house; they’ve not been posted, and the third batch is doing their housemanship now, but they have not been served their appointment letters but have been asked to do their housemanship, so they are also demanding their appointment letters,” he said.
“Even though we’ve finished, and the council is supposed to arrange for our license, as at now, they’ve not arranged for our license, which means that we are not supposed to do anything related to veterinary medicine because we do not have a license. We are looking for employment and also the appointment letters that have not been given, they should make that available,” he added.
The demands of the veterinary doctors come at a time when many different trained professional health groups are protesting against government for failing to absorb them into the public health system which has a huge gap in terms of human resource.
Some have had to picket at the Health Ministry before securing financial clearance to be employed.
245 jobless doctors get financial clearance after Citi FM’s ‘intervention’ Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has finally cleared some 245 doctors after six months of being unemployed.
Earlier this week, the commitment of the government to absorbing these doctors, and healthcare in general, was questioned when one of the doctors wrote to Citi FM conveying the frustration of the jobless doctors who appear ready to serve the country.
The concerns of the medical doctors and the delays in financial clearance for these doctors and many other public sector workers, was also widely discussed on Ghana’s award-winning morning show, the Citi CBS.
