The Ranking Member of the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has advised the striking laboratory scientists to petition his committee in order to step in to help resolve the matters.
According to the Member of Parliament for Sefwi Juaboso Constituency in the Western North Region, it is when the Health Committee is petitioned that members will invite the stakeholders on board to figure out a resolution to the matters.
He was contributing to discussions on The Keypoints on TV3/3FM on Saturday, May 29 on the recent indefinite strike by the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS).
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP lamented how the ordinary Ghanaian is bearing the brunt of the strike action because they cannot afford services at private laboratories.
He, therefore, asked the striking laboratory scientists to reconsider their roadmap.
“If there is an issue, you engage, you listen and you are abreast with the facts and then you have in the resolution and that is exactly what we have appealed to the lab scientists that they must go back to the laboratories and engage us,” he said.
“They must petition us [and then] we will have the opportunity to listen to them and we will invite all the stakeholders and try and resolve the matter. We have done it before.”
He said as it stands now there has been no official complaint to the Health Committee of the Eighth Parliament on the matter given the newness of the committee.
Mr Mintah Akandoh, however, blamed the Minister of Health for seemingly looking on for the industrial action to escalate to a national level.
He said if the Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, had been proactive, matters would not have gotten to this level.
He appealed to the striking health workers to go back to the health facilities because the situation is having a toll on their constituents.
“The Association must, if they think that they are not getting justice or they are not getting the attention of the Minister, they can petition us. We are one arm of government and we are ready to listen to them because our constituents are suffering.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana