Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Hon. Nana Yaw Ayew Afriyie, has defended the ongoing strike action by doctors at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), insisting their decision was justified and necessary to draw government attention to long-standing challenges in the health sector.
Speaking on the controversy surrounding the industrial action on Kessben TV’s Digest show, the lawmaker argued that multiple factors often trigger strikes among health professionals, including inadequate working conditions and shortages of critical resources.
According to Afriyie, the doctors’ concerns go beyond the immediate dispute over the suspension of the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Several reasons inform strike action,” he said, citing “lack of facilities and equipment, salary increment and conditions of service” as some of the key grievances facing healthcare workers.
Contrary to critics who have described the strike as unlawful because doctors are classified as essential service providers, Afriyie maintained that the action had succeeded in highlighting pressing concerns within the health sector.
“What the doctors did was right on course to draw government attention to attend to their call, citing surrounding uncompleted health facilities in the enclave,” he stated.
The MP also linked the challenges at KATH to delays in completing the previous government’s flagship Agenda 111 hospital projects, arguing that the unfinished facilities continue to place enormous pressure on existing healthcare institutions.
“It is embedded in the government to complete Agenda 111 to curb pressure on the existing hospitals,” he stressed.
Afriyie’s comments add a new dimension to the growing debate over the KATH strike. Earlier, former MP Hon. Abdalla Bandah and political analyst Peter Tekpeh argued that essential service workers are prohibited from striking under Ghana’s labor laws and medical ethics codes.
However, Afriyie’s intervention provides a strong counterpoint, framing the doctors’ action as a necessary response to systemic challenges and government inaction.
As the impasse continues, patients and families remain caught in the middle, while calls grow for a swift resolution to restore normal services at one of Ghana’s largest referral hospitals.
