By Kemo Cham
In spite of an avalanche of concerns, community health workers say they are willing to work with the government in the fight to contain the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
An umbrella body of the healthcare providers is however calling on the government to consider putting in place a few things to help them play their part in the national effort.
In a statement issued by the body representing over 1, 500 community health workers, it said they would endeavour to respond to Covid-19 as they did Ebola between 2014 and 2016.
“This is a moral obligation and we will not back out. As CHOs [Community Health Officers], we are prepared to once again take on the challenge as we did during the Ebola scourge to confront this pandemic with singleness of purpose until it is put behind us as a nation. This we will do regardless of the tremendous challenges we continue to face as a cadre; from poor conditions of service to that of the continued refusals of successive governments to give us a professional board to man our own affairs as was ratified by our noble parliament on the 11th day of May, 2017,” reads the statement by the Sierra Leone Association of Community Health Officers (SLACHO).
The statement comes as Sierra Leone recorded six confirmed cases of the virus, amidst ongoing efforts to trace dozens of suspected contacts of the cases.
According to the National Coronavirus Response Team, five of the six confirmed cases came out of quarantine homes, while the sixth is the result of community transmission.
The case resulting from community transmission happens to be a health professional.
SLACHO said it is concerned by this.
“As a professional association, we are concerned with this development especially with the confirmation of a case among our noble profession; our hearts are with our medical doctor and pray for her speedy recovery,” the statement signed by Edwin L. Jibao Jr., National Secretary General of the association, said.
It added: “We are also not unaware of the fact that the possibility of having infected members of the public is high and such possibility has placed more risk on our already weak health system.”
Community health workers are a major force in the health sector. They constitutes one of the largest single cadre of healthcare professionals.
They mostly operate in the communities, where often more highly qualified health workers don’t venture to.
SLACHO says this makes it members most at risk.
The organization is concerned that its longstanding request for recognition as a group hasn’t been granted, even though the passing of the Community Health Workers Act provides for this. One of the benefits of statutory recognition will be the establishment of a board governing its activities.
It said as an association, with close to 80% of its membership working for the Ministry of Health, they remained critically at risk, especially, when up to 90% of their membership, employed in the MoHS, work at the peripheries very close to the people in communities among which are potential positive COVID-19 cases.
“We continue to remain the only health care workers who consult, prescribe and do surgery without a professional licence. As a responsible body, we will not ask the government through the MoHS to give us a board at this critical time, but we will let them know that working in a situation like this without statutory recognition is psychologically hurting us as health professionals and that such a state of low morale is not good for us during such hazardous time,” it said.
“Notwithstanding, the SLACHO membership will continue to give our services and lead the operations at all Community Health Centres, Community Health Posts and extend such services to government hospitals, the District Health Management Teams and to programmes at national level during this trying period in our history,” it added.
SLACHO went on to list six points it wants the government to look into to facilitate their work in the covid-19 fight. Among these, it wants the National Emergency Operation Centre to institute stringent measures at all quarantine homes in the country and for the Health ministry to ensure that frontline healthcare workers are provided with the requisite knowledge for the fight against the virus.
The association also wasn’t the government to implement a “hazard purse” for health workers and said community awareness raising should be consistent and be a continuous activity of health workers, the government, civil society and community stakeholders, among others.
SLACHO also want “serious attention” to be paid to all border districts in the country.
The statement from the association comes after a similar one from the Medical and Dental Association of Sierra Leone (MDASL) which raised similar concerns.
While the MDASL said the three-day lockdown implemented by the government wasn’t enough and should be extended to 14 days, SLACHO want the 3-days lockdown to be “carefully evaluated” to guide the authorities in taking informed decision for possible lockdowns in number of days and consistency.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
