Doctors To Down Tools Today If… * Their 45 liters weekly fuel entitlement is not met *No Increment of their monthly salary
Medical doctors across Sierra Leone have threatened to down tools today Wednesday 22nd October,2024, if the Government fails to meet their demands on fuel allocation and salary increment.
This nationwide sit-at-home strike action was reoched by the Medical doctors in their 21 days ultimatum given to Government to address their long term demands.
In a letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, the Doctors Association stated that their 21 days grace period elapsed on Tuesday and that they will start their industrial strike action on the following day, which is today.
The Association summoned a meeting on Monday to reiterate their position on the 21 days ultimatum and their next step of action.
Dr. Peter Mac- Jajua, Secretary General of the Doctors Association, otherwise known as Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association, said that nobody has contacted them and that many of their members were still owed fuel allocation for several months and that those who received their quota had to wait for six months, with more backlogs still to clear.
The Health Minister, Dr. Austin Demby, asserted that they had given fuel to all doctors, but they couldn’t verify on the grounds for the first and second quarters, and that they were finalizing plans to release their third quarter this week.
On the issue of the strike action, Demby affirmed that it won’t be good if the strike action goes ahead, “because patients will die”, adding that while the doctors’ demands are legitimate, because it is their entitlement, nothwitstanding that, the Government should not be blamed, because it had met its own side as best as it could, despite the competing financial needs of the state.
