Korle Bu doctors suspend planned 13th-month pay arrears strike

Doctors at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have suspended their intended withdrawal of services over their 13th-month salary arrears.

The group earlier threatened to withdraw services to the Outpatient Department as well as elective surgeries and procedures at the hospital from February 6-10 if management does not come up with a clear roadmap for payment of the arrears.

It warned that emergencies would be refused till all in-patients are discharged if nothing was heard from management from February 13.

But speaking to Citi News, the Chairman of the Korle-Bu Doctors Association, Dr. Frank Owusu-Sekyere said the withdrawal of services which was to begin today, February 6 has been suspended following an agreed timeline with management for the payment of the salary arrears.

“Management came out with a letter spelling out the timelines they think they can pay the rest of the arrears. So we just had a meeting as an association, and we have agreed to the timelines management has given praying that they will stick to their side of the bargain, so there is no threat to it before it is paid. So come the end of March, 25 percent of the arrears will be paid and then by end of June, another 25 percent will be paid”, he said.

In an earlier protest letter, the doctors accused the management of discrimination in the payment of the arrears of the 13th-month salary for doctors working in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The doctors also claimed that the communication to the management not to pay the 25% of the arrears until a clear agreement on the timelines for the remainder of the arrears has gone unheeded.

They added that the payment of the arrears seems to have also been ceded to the departments instead of payment from a central pool.

According to the doctors, by decentralizing the payment, doctors working in financially challenged departments would be disadvantaged.