Health Minister Kwabena Mintah-Akandoh in his appeal to Doctors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital to call off their suspension has reminded them he is the first person who takes care of their interests.
The Tamale Teaching Hospital doctors have suspended emergency and OPD services.
According to a press release the doctors are demanding an apology from Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini.
On Tuesday, the Doctors’ Association of Tamale Teaching Hospital (DATTH) announced that its members would no longer offer services at the General OPD, Antenatal Clinic, Specialist Clinic, and Paediatrics OPD.
“All members of DATTH have proceeded on an indefinite suspension of all emergency and outpatient services (General OPD, Antenatal clinic, Specialist clinic, Paediatrics OPD),” the Association announced.
“We shall resume provision of emergency and outpatient services after we receive appropriate apologies,” DATTH stated.
The press release also added a list of urgent logistical and infrastructural needs to hospital management which include
- Constant water and electricity supply
- Steady provision of oxygen and critical medical consumables such as gloves, cannulae, syringes, disinfectants, and glucometer strips
- Reagents to keep lab services running
- Vital signs monitors for high-dependency units
- Ventilators for various wards, including neonatal, pediatric, maternal, and emergency units
- Transport ventilators and incubators
- Repairs to essential sterilisation equipment
Speaking during a press conference in Accra on Thursday, April 24, Kwabena Mintah-Akandoh stated, “For the past two or three days I have been speaking to stakeholders in this sector, and please it is not everything we can put out there as leaders, I am prepared for us to come around the table and discuss whatever we need to discuss.
My humble appeal to the medical doctors and health practitioners at Tamale Teaching Hospital is that I am the first person to take care of your interests. Therefore, let us call off the strike and let us all regroup and strategise the way forward”.
He appealed, “There are some things we can do with our internally generated funds, so please, let us confront the issues as they are, it is just not sustainable for the government to keep donating equipment to Health facilities and at the end of the day when the equipment is obsolete you run back to the government for money to either maintain or replace this equipment”.
Even when we are not charging the right amount we still generate something small from these machines what happens to the money, there must be a new direction and we all group together and think through it. Maybe I am looking at it from a different perspective then we share ideas let pursue the interest of the ordinary Ghanaians”, he added.
Meanwhile, Kwabena Mintah-Akandoh has also donated some essential medical equipment to the Tamale Teaching Hospital to support the facility’s operational needs.
Watch the video below:
Health Minister appeals to doctors at Tamale Teaching Hospital to call off their suspension but refuses to apologize as demanded.#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/vPZ24nfU4a
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) April 24, 2025
