Bono East, Upper West Regions Lab Scientists threaten Strike -In solidarity With KATH Scientists

Laboratory scientists across the country are bracing for a rare industrial action in solidarity with their colleagues from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi over what they describe as an invasion of their professional space by some medical doctors.

So far, two more Regions have thrown their weight behind KATH as lab scientists from the Upper West and Bono East Region have issued a notice of a pending strike too. 

The Bono Region branch of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) says they may be forced to join in a full-blown strike if the issues remain unresolved by Thursday, May 27.

Personnel in the regions showed up at work clad in red head and armbands indicating their dismay about the situation at KATH.

In the Upper West Region, the GAMLS has alerted its members to be on standby for ‘further action’ if nothing is done about the impasse by the close of May 26, 2021.

“We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at KATH and if by close of day 26th May 2021 there is no resolution, we call on our members at (Ghana Health Service, Faith Base, CHAG) to follow the laydown road map until future notice from the Regional Executive Council.” the group in a May 24 statement.

The industrial action which started in KATH on May 20 has already gathered widespread support from Lab technicians and other allied medical professionals.

The protest at KATH had started as a sit-down strike but has escalated into a total withdrawal of services at an emergency meeting on Wednesday.

“Until management resolves our issues, we are not going to come to work,” President of the KATH branch of GAMLS, Ernest Badu-Boateng announced to the media.

According to them, professional members of the association who qualify to fill the two available slots have been sacrificed for the medical doctors who have been posted to the KATH laboratory.