His worries are in response to the government’s statement that it will restructure its debts.
He says that affecting the workers’ already subpar pensions will have a detrimental effect on their standard of living.
“Pensions in this country are quite awful,” he said. “If you look at the budget itself, we’re told that the cedi has depreciated by over 53%.
In essence, if you currently have 1000 Ghana cedis, the value of your holdings is less than 53%.
“And so, if you look at our pensions that are already suffering and we’re going to go through this process of debt restructuring with even in terms of bonds yielding zero percentage points come 2023 and the 5% 2024 and then 10% and so forth and so on. It is quite a problem,” he is quoted by myjoyonline.com.
“My own Ministry, which is the Ministry of Health, as we speak, three ministers, that is a substantive Minister and two deputies. Is there no way we can cut? So essentially government has not shown that we are in crisis,” he added.
President of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Serebour, says the governmenthas not demonstrated that the nation is in a crisis, so organized labor should not be forced to bear the weight of the economic downturn.
He was speaking concerning the government’s debt exchange programme which has faced strong backlash from organized labour and civil society organsiations.
According to him, the failure of government to drastically reduce its expenditure by internalizing the austerity measures it seeks to impose on the general public was enough evidence to prove that the country might really not be in dire straits as being reported.
He noted that therefore, the government’s proposed application of the debt exchange programme on their pension funds is untenable and the Ghana Medical Association vehemently opposes it.
“Pensions in this country is very bad…If you take a look at the budget itself we’re told that the cedi has depreciated almost about 53%. Essentially if you have 1000ghana cedis currently, what you have actually in terms of value is less than 53%.
“And so if you look at our pensions that are already suffering and we’re going to go through this process of debt restructuring with even in terms of bonds yielding zero percentage points come 2023 and the 5% 2024 and then 10% and so forth and so on. It is quite a problem,” he said.
He noted that while the government was imposing austerity measures on the rest of Ghanaians, it was, on the other hand, still pursuing its vanity projects and maintaining its mammoth size.
“From all that we have heard this evening, even the cathedral, Evans, tell me what is it about the cathedral that we cannot decide that we have to do away with it for the meantime. What is it about it? What is it about the size of government that we can’t do anything about it?
“My own Ministry, which is the Ministry of Health, as we speak, three ministers, that is a substantive Minister and two deputies. Is there no way we can cut? So essentially government has not shown that we are in crisis.
“It is business as usual, and if you look at the budget as you indicated, everything else is increasing except the fact that the things that are supposed to affect worker and other citizens of Ghana they’re very happy to cut those things. Government flagship programmes, none of it has been affected.
“So essentially we don’t think that this is the time to use pensions as a leverage. Pensions at this time when clearly government has not demonstrated the fact that we’re in trouble. Clearly, we are not in trouble as far as we’re concerned so why come and touch pensions,” he stated.
Reacting to the Chamber of Corporate Trustees’ U-turn on the government’s debt exchange programme, Dr. Frank Serebour stressed that the GMA, as well as the rest of organized labour, will be sticking with the Chamber’s earlier stance.
The Chamber of Corporate Trustees had earlier opposed the government’s debt exchange programme, however, it has since backtracked on its stance and has instead called for negotiation between government and organized labour.
According to Dr. Serebour, any call for negotiation should be from the government and not from organized labour.
He said, the Finance Minister, and by extension, the government, has shown gross disrespect to stakeholders in the matter following their failure to engage them in any negotiations before announcing the policy.
As a result, the GMA and the rest of organized labour will continue to oppose the government’s planned debt exchange programme.
“And so I beg to differ from the position held by the Chamber of Corporate Trustees at the moment as you’re announcing to me that they’re willing to negotiate, I think the position should be clear. In fact we should not be calling for negotiations.
“Ideally it should have been the Finance Minister and I have said on several platforms that he doesn’t respect anyone that is the reason why he’s done what he has done. Otherwise how can you take this decision without involving the stakeholders and actually sitting at the table with them to at least pick their brains and find out how best we can resolve this issue and at least help this country?
“So I don’t subscribe to that, I think that Ghana Medical Association stands by its position that we don’t accept this and I’m sure that the other labour unions would hold the same view as I am holding this evening,” he said.
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has expressed dissatisfaction with the unfair and unequitable distribution of medical doctors in the country, describing it as a discrimination against Northern Ghana.
Speaking at the 64th Annual General Conference of the GMA in Bolgatanga, Dr Frank Serebour, the National President, GMA, said the situation was having dire health consequences on the already deprived and underserved regions and posed threats to quality of healthcare delivery in those areas.
He stated for instance that the Upper East Region had a total of 89 medical doctors, out of which only 30 were currently at post due to further studies, depriving many vulnerable communities of quality healthcare.
“This number is equivalent to a single department in our teaching hospitals in Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye, and the numbers are not different from other deprived regions in the country”.
According to Dr Serebour, many healthcare facilities in Northern Ghana in particular, were being served by one doctor while some doctors had spent all their working lives in the South particularly in Accra and Kumasi.
He described the situation as an indictment on the management of the healthcare system in Ghana and underscored the need for an open and honest discussion to resolve the skewed distribution of doctors.
“Until there is a total transparency and fair play in transfers based on the needs of institutions, there will always be brave people who would refuse postings to deprived areas,” he lamented.
Apart from urging the government to design incentive package to attract and retain doctors in rural and deprived areas, Dr Serebour urged the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, particularly the District Assemblies to provide basic structures for doctors and other health workers.
This, he said, coupled with improved condition of service, would not only motivate doctors and other health workers to work in deprived communities but would help prevent the brain drain of doctors which was on the ascendancy.
“These packages may include well-furnished accommodation, top up salaries up to the tune of 50 per cent of their total salaries, full scholarships for further training, either within or outside the country after three years of continuous and dedicated service,” he added.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, Upper East Regional Minister, indicated that shortage of doctors especially in the Upper East Region was worrying to stakeholders and needed collective approach to resolving the issue.
He said over the years, doctors had refused postings to the region and the Regional Coordinating Council had tasked the Municipal and District Assemblies to identify and sponsor students to pursue medicine and bond them to work in the region.
He said the region was benefitting eight district hospitals under the government’s agenda 111 project and there was the need to attract and retain more doctors.
Mr Mahama Sei Seini, the Deputy Minister of Health, lauded the efforts of the GMA for the continuous contribution towards ensuring quality healthcare in the country.
He said as part of the government’s to achieve Universal Health Coverage, the Ministry had set up a committee on rural incentive package to attract health workers to rural areas and added that the committee had finished and submitted its report.
The conference was on the theme, “Doctor distribution dilemma: the case of Ghana and its underserved areas”.