I have four brothers, three of them are pastors. I am fourteen years older than the one after me, and many, many years older than the rest. One of them who is now a pastor was a real nuisance when he was a baby.
There were days that he would decide to punish our mum by crying all-night, and he does so by requesting for fufu at midnight. As soon as you hear him say: “pupuo” (fufu) around 12am then the entire household must brace itself for a sleepless night. Kikikikikiki, I’m planning to tell his congregation about this story one of these days when I visit his church.
The Ghana Medical Association could be likened to my younger brother when he was a baby, they want “pupuo” at midnight just to cause trouble. Doctors receive on-call-duty facilitation allowance of 10% of their basic salary. Now, they want 20%. They receive 20% of their basic salary as rent allowance, but they now want 40%. They receive 30 gallons of fuel per month, and they now want 90 gallons.
They also want 20% utility allowance, 25% special risk allowance, 50% professional allowance, 20% vehicle maintenance allowance, clothing allowance of 30%, fully paid postgraduate medical education, waiver on importation of vehicles, overtime allowance should be increased from 40 hours per week to 200 hours per week, lump sum long service award: Last gross salary x 180
months (15years of service) among others.
There is one that the National Security must be interested in: Malpractice Insurance Cover for all doctors and dentists. Laa ilaaha illallah, Malpractice Insurance Cover paa? Shake My Head. Chai, are there malpractices going on in our hospitals? What do the doctors want to achieve with such preposterous demands? What if teachers, nurses, engineers, senior public servants, judges, etc, also make similar demands? Kai, this runs afoul of moral expediency.
Currently a Principal Medical Officer is on Level PSH23 of the Single Spine Salary Structure. The Basic Salary is 2,655.87 Ghana cedis per month with a market premium of 2,898.41 per month making a monthly salary of 5,554.28 Ghana cedis without any allowance.
More alarming is the revelation that 40% accommodation will equal 1,062.35 per month. Fuel allowance of 90 gallons is equal to 1,530 Ghana cedis per month. Over time allowance of 200 hours per month is equal to 1.25% of basic salary which equal to 3,319.84 Ghana cedis. On call allowance of 20% is equal to 531.17 Ghana cedis. Clothing allowance of 30% is equal to 796.76 Ghana cedis. Book allowance of 30% is also equal to 796.76 Ghana cedis. Utility allowance of 20% is equal to 531.17 Ghana cedis. Professional allowance of 50% is equal to 1,327.94 Ghana cedis. Risk allowance of 25% is equal to 663.97 Ghana cedis. And vehicle maintenance allowance of 20% is equal to 531.17 Ghana cedis.
The total of the above with the basic and the market premium is equal to 16,645.41 Ghana cedis per month for a doctor.
In a case where a doctor for instance hits 15 years in service by next month, then by the demand of the GMA, that doctor must be paid 999,770.40 Ghana cedis as long service allowance! This is ridiculous, and can never be sustained by a country reeling under the burden of a Single Spine Salary Structure.
Perhaps, it is a joke and there is the need to contemptuously disregard these outlandish demands with a wave of the hand. But the bottom line is becoming clear: they want to wreak havoc, and I smell political mischief.
People carry baskets of plantain, yam and other items, but Dr. Laughing Stone has decided to carry a basket full of shame. I heard his nauseating utterances on an Accra based FM station and I was shocked. It is not, not, not. For once, I thought I was listening to a member of a certain race from the Kalahari desert.
My biggest gripe, however, is that the clergy, civil society groups, celebrities, etc., have lost their voices. I am livid and screaming: Nyansafuo no wo hin? Where are the wise men of the land?
