Bono Region lab scientists declare strike in support of colleagues at KATH

The Bono Regional Chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, have also declared an indefinite strike to support their colleagues at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the Ashanti Region.

The entire Association in the Ashanti Region has begun an indefinite strike over the stalemate at KATH.

The Bono Regional Chairman of the Medical Laboratory Scientists, Moses Kofi Woli, said its members have laid down their tools and will put all labs in the region under lock and key until the demands of their colleagues at KATH are met.

He said all authorities have been notified about the decision.

“We are joining the strike. We have served all the authorities notice. We’ve sent a letter to the Regional Health Director copying all the necessary stakeholders we are joining them. We are not going to work. It is not going to be a sit-down strike, we are not going there. We are locking the labs,” he said.

The regional leadership of the association in an earlier statement on Monday, May 24, 2021, directed all of its members to wear red bands as a way of supporting their colleagues in Kumasi.

“The Regional Executive Committee (REC) of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) – Bono East Region, wishes to inform all Medical Laboratory professionals that, we are all required to wear red bands, starting Tuesday, 25th May, 2021,” the earlier statement said.

Members of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS-KATH), declared a one-week sit-down strike on Thursday, 20th May, 2021.

The strike, according to the leadership of the Association, is to protest the decision of the hospital’s management to keep two medical specialists in key positions at the Laboratory Services Directorate.

The Chairman of the Komfo Anokoye Teaching Hospital Chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, Ernest Badu Boateng, who spoke to Citi News after an emergency meeting with their members at the hospital, said the Ministry of Health and the management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have the one-week window to reassign the medical specialists.

He said if the authorities fail to change their stance, all medical laboratory scientists in the country will meet to take further action.

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has warned that it will be forced to react if either the government or the management of KATH heeds the demands of the lab scientists.

The Ministry of Health has appealed to the lab scientists to call off the strike.