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Life of a Ghanaian doctor- is the strike fair?



The nation is shaken anytime doctors threaten strike or actually embark on it. they get to meet the president or his vice or top government officials which others workers don't ever get. I have covered stories about the doctors strike and well.. i have lost count. All I know is when doctors bark, it is the loudest. period! With the persistent strike by doctors, there’s a growing public perception doctors are uncompassionate and selfish; I tell the story of the Ghanaian doctor...who is he or she? the average middle class ghanaian or a well to do to do arrogant saviour?

The medical profession is associated with respect and sophistication and doctors in particular are revered by the public for the God-like job of healing the sick. But in the wake of persistent strikes they are becoming popular for the wrong reasons. Many Ghanaians harbour the perception that doctors are selfish and insensitive.

I met a doctor at Korle-Bu who dressed me up as a doctor too to spend a day with him and experience his life as a doctor in GH. Listen to my interview with the anonymous doctor (on facebook or twitter)and tell me if their strike is justified or not.
Dr Anonymous speaks...
"I feel very bad whenever I hear people say that doctors are not compassionate and callous.  It is very painful [to hear people talk like this], because doctors ‘work their backs off’ just to take care of their patients. There are very wrong’ perceptions that strikes by doctors are all about pay increase. Sometimes, they strike over unresolved issues related to their salaries which have lingered for long. It was therefore not true that doctors lay down their tools just to make more money. Even when we go on strike, we do not totally shut down our services and measures are put in place to care for patients.  Deaths that occur during periods when doctors are on strike cannot be blamed on the strike. If somebody is going to die, he will die. We are not gods, we are human beings, we just have a little bit extra knowledge. The manner in which Ghanaians criticize and sometimes malign doctors makes us feel unappreciated. Sometimes you just get frustrated with the system and you think it’s easier and better if you get out...” 
xoxo


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