Patients Desert Connaught Hospital
Sierra Leone’s ailing health sector has been compounded by the strike action of Doctors and Nurses of the two major referrals, Connaught and Princess Christian Maternity Hospitals in Freetown for improved conditions of service.
Almost all the patients from Connaught have been removed to other medical centers for treatment.
“The manner in which government is treating its citizens creates room for chaos and mediocrity. Can you imagine that after seven years of academic struggle, a medical doctor is paid a paltry salary as if I am not different from an illiterate,†one of the doctors asserted.Â
Dr. Modupeh Cole, a Physician Specialist, who has defied his colleagues by continuing to render humanitarian service to helpless patients, underscored that government must treat the strike action with all the seriousness it deserves since according to him there are other major problems to the strike action rather than just increase in salary.
He affirmed that they would never demand for something government can’t afford disclosing that he cannot in any way deny that government has not been investing in the health sector but that such investments have been going to the wrong hands.
According to Dr. Cole, “our salary is an insult compared to colleagues in other countries that cannot boast of mineral resources. Furthermore, professionals don’t receive what they deserve as the whole system needs overhauling if government is serious about improving the health sector in the country.â€
He recalled that when he returned home seven years ago, there were no instruments in Ward 10 and that he had to purchase them just to keep things going disclosing, “I have written several letters asking that I be reimbursed for my air ticket but nothing has been done by the Human Resource Management Office.â€
“While we are suffering, others are enjoying. If government has money to give Parliamentarians to buy cars, why can’t they give us the ‘little’ we are demanding,†a Nurse queried.
Student nurses rendering service to patients said that they want free education, as according to them, the Le1,300,000 (one million, three hundred thousand Leones) they pay per academic year to complete the three year course is colossal.
Most wards were virtually empty except for Ward 7 where Military medical officers are rendering assistance.
The HIV/AIDS section at the Connaught Hospital is fully operational.
It was also gathered that the medical staff are furious with the Anti-Corruption Commission’s instruction that all consultation fees and other funds generated at the hospital must be paid to the hospital’s Finance Department. All efforts to contact the hospital’s Care Manager proved futile.
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