Several patients were on Monday, left stranded at various hospitals in the Ashanti region following a strike action announced by laboratory biochemical officers.
The strike was to protest salary discrepancies they we insist re were registered during their migration unto the single spine salary structure.
The officers are also calling for a laboratory directorate to evaluate and regulate the activities of laboratory practices in hospitals and peripheral facilities in the country.
A visit to the Suntreaso Government hospital saw red bands rapped at vantage points to announce the strike. This left several patients a majority of whom were pregnant women stranded. My colleague Ivan Heathcote Fumador has been doing some monitoring and filed this report.
The Suntreso hospital like all other hospitals in the region had red bands wrapped around vantage points announcing the strike of laboratory biomedical officers.
The laboratory department of the hospital was under lock and key with no staff in sight.
Patients a majority among whom were pregnant women were left helpless wondering where to get their tests done.
A woman who had been left confused told Ultimate News, “I am pregnant… I always come here to do my labs. Today they say they are on strike and I don’t know why. I am going back to tell the doctors what is going on here. If they refer me elsewhere, it will cost higher.”
Another woman who had just come in to meet the situation was worried, “I came to do my labs here but they have closed the place up. I am begging government to do all it can to get them back because the charges here are much affordable than outside.”
The medical superintendent of the Suntreso government hospital Dr Agyarko Poku told Ultimate News the development will have dire consequences as the hospital will be challenged in delivering medical care to patients.
He told reporter Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, the only option will be for patients to be referred to private medical laboratories which will come at a higher cost to the patients since the national health insurance does not work in a majority of private facilities.
Medical Superintendents later in the afternoon met with the management of the Ghana Health Service in the region to find a solution to the teething challenges arising from the strike action.
Regional health director Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang told Ultimate News, though the situation poses a threat to healthcare delivery in the region, stop gap measures will kick in while government negotiates with the lab technicians.
He indicated, “There are alternative because there are private facilities and if it becomes very difficult, we can send some of the samples to the private facilities.
He however admitted that it will come at an extra cost to the patients.
By: Ghana/Ultimatefmonline.com/106.9FM/Ivan Heathcote-Fumador
The post Patients stranded at Suntreso Hospital as lab technicians declare strike appeared first on Ultimate FM.
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