Former President John Mahama has urged the Akufo-Addo government to urgently take action to provide all the needed logistics such as PPE to all the health posts that need them in order to boost the confidence of the frontline health workers in helping the nation to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in Ghana which has, so far, killed five out of two hundred and four people.

In a Facebook write-up, Mr Mahama said: “While we observe the period of lockdown, it is incumbent on the government to also take urgent action to resolve some of the obvious shortcomings in our response to the pandemic”.

He said: “The unpleasant news of an imminent strike by health workers at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital because of the poor response to COVID-19 is most disturbing.

“The situation in Korle Bu is not an isolated case. Complaints of lack of PPE and isolation facilities are coming from many health facilities across the country and it is important that steps are taken to identify areas of urgent need and supply the resources and logistics needed to build the confidence of our frontline health workers to battle this disease”, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress said.

Mr Mahama is in good company with the Minority in Parliament, which has asked the government of Ghana to listen to the cry of the frontline health workers in order to prevent any strike from them.

Doctors at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital threatened to lay down their tools due to inadequate materials and logistics to deal with cases of the coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

In a memo to their Head of Department, the doctors decried the usage of a side ward as an isolation centre without the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“We write to express our general dissatisfaction with the preparedness or lack thereof of the department to combat the current COVID-19 pandemic. We also wish to express our displeasure with the events surrounding the hospital’s first confirmed case.

“Firstly, the pandemic; an existential threat to us, you will agree has to be handled with decisiveness and transparency. It is based on this that, we are against the actions or inactions taken before, during and after the case had been confirmed,” parts of the memo read.

Reacting to this in an interview with Accra 100.5FM’s parliamentary correspondent Richard Appiah Sarpong on Friday, April 3, the Minority spokesman on Health and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, asked the government to immediately supply what the doctors need to enable them work effectively.

“We were shocked to hear yesterday that some medical doctors at Korle Bu are threatening stroke actions.

“I believe that at this point in time in this crisis, the least that we want to hear as Ghanaians is that any health professional is threatening strike action.

“We have taken time to read through some of their concerns and we think they have legitimate concerns that we think the government, as a matter of urgency, must respond to because apart from God, they are our saviors now.

“Some of the issues they raise were about inadequate PPE in the system.”