A Minister’s “Sharap”, A Strike

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh

 

“Don’t you know that I am a minister?” were the reported words from the lips of the Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh to a doctor at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), the main referral facility up North.

The minister and the doctor could not agree with each other during the visit of the government appointee to the facility on a mission to know more about the allegation of negligence leading to the death of a patient levelled against health workers there.

Unknown to many, the hospital is suffering from dearth of essential medical gadgets, a situation which has stretched doctors.

Reports from the referral hospital speak of despair on the faces of patients and their family members since the announcement of the strike.

Doctors at the facility under the direction of their association have withdrawn their services for Out-Patients, save those on admissions in the wards.

Managing interpersonal relationship is essential in every situation, be it in the public service or even at home between man, his spouse or his dependents.

The Honourable Minister went to the facility with an air of superiority and failed a basic test of good interpersonal relationship with others.

Screaming to the doctor the way the minister did and asking whether the doctor did not know he is a doctor was bound to attract a flak from the affected person and his colleagues.

Doctors, who in the face of challenges in working in a facility whose complements of essentials including water are in short supply, deserve plaudits not disrespect from the Health Minister and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency in which the facility is situated.

Now that the doctors have embarked on this biting and dangerous strike, their demands of expressing of remorse are deserving. It is easy to express such a remorse, not so however the provision of the essential items as being demanded by the aggrieved doctors.

While we ask that the minister and the MP render apology to the doctors, we plead with them that the provision of the gadgets and chemicals such as reagents required in the laboratories might not be easy to be fulfilled.

It is in this light that we ask that they vary the demands to a feasible level by insisting on the apologies only and allowing the authorities to expedite action on the essentials. Patients should not suffer the fallouts from the hubris of a minister and MP.

The angst of the doctors stems from the fact that their sacrifices are not being recognised. He screamed at the doctor as though he was speaking to his teenaged boy at home.

The reaction of the doctors following the rather poor management of his engagement with the doctors should offer important lessons in managing relationships by especially government appointees at the highest level, such as ministers and even the President.

When a President talks down a citizen who of course is not fed from the Presidency, the reaction can definitely be rough. It behooves persons at the top to be mindful about how they interact with their subordinates and others, even in their immediate families.

Respect is reciprocal, and when it is not treated this way, the fallouts will be distasteful as being witnessed from the Akandoh and TTH doctors’ encounter.

The post A Minister’s “Sharap”, A Strike appeared first on DailyGuide Network.

Read Full Story