Members of the Ghana Medical Association have since Monday morning been carrying through their threat of suspending the treatment of Out Patients at public health facilities in the Kumasi Metropolis and its environs.
Patients seeking medical care at the Suntreso , Manhyia, Tafo and the Kumasi South hospitals, as well as those at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) returned home unattended to following the strike action by the GMA.
As at 10: am when Graphic Online visited the KATH Polyclinic, patients were seen leaving the facility after having waited for some time, without being attended to.
Others continued to wait in the hope that the doctors would rescind their decision and attend to them.
At the KATH Trauma and Orthopedic consulting room, about 60 patients who had reported for treatment had not been attended to as at 10:30 am when Graphic Online reached them.
The situation was the same at the Suntreso Government Hospital where the President of the GMA , Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei provides consultancy services.
Doctors were however visiting the wards of the hospitals, attending to patients on admission.
Later in an interview, Dr. Opoku Adusei said the strike action was nationwide.
He said they would continue to carry out their action until their demands were met.
He, however, said they would continue to provide emergency services to patients who needed such services and warned that if their grievances remained unresolved between now and Sunday, they would withdraw all services across the country on Monday, February 18, 2013 until further notice.
Story by George Ernest Asare
