Following an apparent logjam with the health ministry, doctors in Sierra Leone say they will go ahead with their indefinite nationwide strike tomorrow – Monday 1 August – over their pay and conditions.
They had issued a 21-day notice demanding that their pre-May salary be reinstated and they be given their weekly 45 litres of fuel which they had not received for years.
Minister of Health, Dr Austin Demby told me that they had met both of the doctors’ demands. He said the issue of the salary reduction, which was occasioned by the withdrawal of Covid19 allowances, had been settled with the doctors getting their money as before.
He said they had also agreed to be issuing chits to doctors for their fuel quota.
But the president of the medical and dental association, Dr Edries Tejan told me that while the salary reinstatement had been agreed upon, they wanted the cost of the fuel to be paid into their bank accounts rather than in chits because they did not trust the system to be issuing it to them as and when they should.
Health ministry officials say they cannot give the money because some doctors get sent on secondment elsewhere where they do get their fuel supply and that it will be difficult to stop the pay when such a move happens. – Umaru Fofana
