By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Members of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association (SLMDA), have at a press conference in Freetown yesterday issued a 23-day strike notice, threatening to down tools, if their concerns are not addressed.
The President of SLMDA, Dr. Edries A. Tejan said the welfare of medical doctors in Sierra Leone has been appalling and has not been given the due consideration it deserves. He said Sierra Leone has joined the world in pursuing high quality health service delivery that is expected to be accessible and affordable to the populace.
He stated that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation held a Summit three months ago on the theme: ‘transforming healthcare delivery towards universal health coverage’, citing the need to have skilled health workers providing people-centred care,one of the main components in achieving universal health coverage.
‘’In ensuring the retention of these skilled workers, and also after ensuring their retention, they should be motivated to give their all at work and to also give them a happier place of deployment,’’ he said.
Dr. Tejan also recalled the association’s Medical Congress on the 3rd June 2022 at the new Brookfields hotel, that highlighted the theme ‘Improving the welfare of Medical Doctors in Sierra Leone, the way forward.’ He said they deliberated in that meeting on the important issues affecting Medical Doctors in the country and they were tasked to draft a document to be presented to the government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
He stated that they were shocked and dismayed by the abrupt deductions in their monthly take-home pay for the month of May and June 2022, with no form of communication from either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. He said after realizing the deduction, they requested the Health Ministry to furnish them with information about the said cut.
The SLMDA President pointed out that at a meeting convened by the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry and other Stakeholders, he informed the Association that a team of experts from the World Bank stated that the wage bill of the government is very high; therefore the Finance Ministry was looking at ways to cut down on its expenses. He said they came up with a resolution that a certain allowance that was given to all health workers should be stopped with immediate effect without having the courtesy of informing the association.
‘’All the health workers represented in that meeting demanded that the money deducted from their take-home salary should be restored unconditionally and it should be reflected on the take-home pay for July 2022,’’ he said.
He noted that an agreement was arrived at after the meeting that the Permanent Secretary should write a letter to the Finance ministry explaining to them the resolution the association took in that meeting. He said, the SLMDA executive has been following up on the issue, and that a response from the Ministry of Finance is yet to be received.
The SLMDA boss referenced the Civil Service Code which he said stated that every Civil Servant of Technical Grade 9 or above is entitled to 2 Gallons of fuel per day to work which he said equates to 9 litres of fuel a day which sums up to 45 litres of fuel per week, 180 litres per month and 2,340 litres per year.
He said they also came up with a resolution that all doctors should be receiving this entitlement of 45 litres a week, equating to 180 litres a month. He added that they are also demanding that the personnel fuel that used to be embedded into hospital programmes of the Directorate of the Health Ministry budget. be completely separated.
‘’We are going to continue our work onto the end of July 2022 so that we allow those that are responsible to rectify these issues. If they fail to meet these demands, we will embark on a sit-home strike,’’ he emphasized.
SLMDA is an independent professional body of public and private medical and dental practitioners in Sierra Leone.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (08/07/22)
