Ghana is planning to recruit 177 doctors from Cuba to work at state-run hospitals hit by a doctors’ strike, Health Minister Alex Segbefia has said.
The government would also retain Cuban physicians currently in the country whose contracts had expired, he added.
Negotiations between the government and doctors to end the three-week strike have broken down.
A policy of no-work-no-pay would be applied on those who refused to return to work by Thursday, the minister said.
Ghana is planning to recruit 177 doctors from Cuba to work at state-run hospitals hit by a doctors’ strike, Health Minister Alex Segbefia has said.
The government would also retain Cuban physicians currently in the country whose contracts had expired, he added.
Negotiations between the government and doctors to end the three-week strike have broken down.
A policy of no-work-no-pay would be applied on those who refused to return to work by Thursday, the minister said.
The BBC’s Sammy Darko in the capital, Accra, says the strike has mainly affected large teaching hospitals.
It has also put enormous pressure on military and police hospitals, which are treating emergency cases, he adds.
All Ghanaians can have access to free state healthcare if they register with the National Health Insurance Authority.
Government officials have advised people needing urgent medical attention during the strike to go to private clinics and show their health insurance cards.
It is not clear whether those who have done so have received free medical care.
Source:http://www.bbc.com/