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Tamale Teaching Hospital junior doctors call off strike

Junior doctors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) have suspended their strike following a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between the management of the hospital and the leadership of the doctors last Friday.

Under the MoU, a taskforce comprising both the management of the hospital and leadership of the doctors was set up to ensure that anytime funds were available at the TTH, the doctors were paid their fuel allowances that had been in arrears for the past 15 months.

The taskforce would also ensure that there was transparency and openness with regards to information flow from management to the doctors regarding whether or not there was money in the system to pay their fuel arrears.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Nii Otu Ankrah, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Tamale last Monday, noted that the MoU was to ensure that there was commitment from management to pay the arrears owed the doctors.

According to him, with that understanding, the junior doctors agreed to go back to work, adding that they had been at post since last Saturday.

Commenting on the meeting, a spokesperson for the junior doctors, Dr Woweli Bentil, said he and his colleagues had decided to call off the strike because although they were not paid anything immediately, there was a documentary evidence that enjoined management of the hospital to be committed to paying the arrears due them.

"With that understanding, if management fails to pay the arrears, we can hold them accountable; but for now, we are back to work and we are happy that the taskforce is monitoring the situation, " he further explained.

Last Wednesday, the junior doctors embarked on an indefinite strike to compel the management of the TTH to pay their fuel allowances that had been in arrears for 15 months.

The strike impacted negatively on efficient healthcare delivery at the hospital since the junior doctors formed the majority of doctors working at the TTH. About 100 of them work at the hospital.

By Vincent Amenuveve/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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