General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Dr Frank Serebuor says he does not regret and will not apologise for calling a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) an “idiot”.
“I don’t regret what I said and I will not apologise or retract my comments”, he said on Peace FM’s morning show, ‘Kokrokoo’.
In an interview on Accra based Hot FM, last Friday, he attacked the NDC representative on the Show who said “Ghanaians were tired of doctors.”
Dr Serebuor lashed out at Yeboah Boateng who was on the Show for accusing the President of the GMA of instigating the strike by doctors for political reasons.
According to Yeboah Boateng,“is Dr Poku-Adusei who has risen through the ranks to become the President of GMA telling us that he doesn’t know what is in their contract? They should quit the job. We are tired of them. I am serious about what I am saying."
He claimed that the GMA is “doing this to make sure their private hospitals can flourish,” and described their demands as outrageous.
According to Dr Serebour, the comments he made, which have created a media frenzy, were not misplaced as he was only saying things the NDC communicators say themselves.
“We need to let them (government communicators) know that we can equally respond in their language but we restrain ourselves because we respect ourselves,” he said.
“I won’t retract them…I have not regretted…I think that at a point in time you have to let people know that you can also get to that level. So I’m not ready to retract. I have not regretted the insults I hurled on him.”
Dr. Serebour said that insults were not the “bona fide” property of the NDC although they treated them us such, not expecting to be responded to when they intimidate others.
The public sector physicians have been at loggerheads with government over their service conditions for several years now.
The doctors gave a June ending ultimatum to withdraw their services entirely if government failed to finalise a document that will serve as their conditions of service, but after negotiations began, they agreed to extend their deadline by a month which expired Tuesday July 28.
A statement from the National Executive Committee of the GMA on Wednesday said, “the Government have failed to meet the deadline for completion of Negotiations on Conditions of Service for Doctors working in the public sector.
“…Since doctors in the public sector do not have a negotiated and signed Conditions of Service document as at the said time and date, the National Executive Committee have no option but to roll out the road map as put forward by the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting.
Click below to listen to Dr Frank Serebour.