Managers of laboratory facilities in public hospitals have asked government to facilitate and conclude negotiations on their conditions of service without delay.
According to them, the delay, amid the current economic conditions has impacted on their meagre remuneration.
In June, the lab scientists across the country declared a nationwide strike over delay in concluding negotiations on their conditions of service.
The National Labour Commission (NLC) therefore summoned the lab scientists and government into a closed-door meeting.
After deliberations, the NLC gave a directive that government should ensure that negotiations are concluded.
More than a month now, agreement on the negotiations have not been reached resulting in simmering agitations on the health sector.
The Lab scientist have complained that the delay has worsened their already precarious living conditions.
The head of the Ashanti Region branch of the lab scientists, who is also a lab manager, Dr Eric Aidoo said, some members have decided to resign from the work.
“I checked with our HR in the hospitals, and they were telling me about ninety staff, so it is an alarming rate. So, where the country has gotten to, apart from our conditions of service we are fighting for, things are not going as we expect”.
“And so, we think that for us to stay, we have to do things better. But is getting worse and worse by the day, government must really speed up because we are getting so much frustrated,” he lamented.
Board Chairman of the lab managers in Ghana, Dr David Sackey called on government to consider the welfare of lab scientists.
“As I speak currently, laboratory professionals in the country do not have coded conditions of service and is worrisome”.
“The tortoise-like approach by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is creating labour agitations in the medical laboratory profession. We are therefore pleading to government to come to our aid”.
Responding to their concerns, Director of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo assured of government’s commitment to address their concerns.
He also emphasized on quality of health care delivery by the lab scientists.
“When we accept that they form a key and critical role without whom health care delivery will be seriously compromised, COVID is an example where everybody had to go for a COVID test. It takes place in the lab”.
“Even drawing the wrong sample will give you the wrong lab results. Really they form a critical role, they need infrastructure, they need resources, but our concern also is about the quality of service delivery”.
“It is important that lab results that you get from ten different labs with the same sample should be identical and sadly we have concern that is not so, and the factors are many, human resource and so on and so forth”.
Later, the lab managers convened an emergency meeting to discuss challenges in lab practice at the various hospitals.
The theme for their discussion was “Lab Managers in a Challenging Setting”.
By Daniel Opoku
