PRESS BRIEFING – Death of Dr. Olivet Buck
We regret to announce the death of Dr. Olivet Buck. Dr. Buck was the Medical Superintendent attached to the Lumley Government hospital in Western Urban Freetown. She is the fourth doctor we have lost in the line of duty to the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD). Like any dedicated doctor to the profession and like any mother, Dr. Buck treated a little boy in the Lumley government hospital who turned out to be Ebola positive from whom she contracted the disease. (Photo credit: PRIME)
Like late Dr. Khan, the Government of Sierra Leone did everything possible including a plan to evacuate Dr. Buck to Germany to save the life of this heroine. That plan was hinged upon international bureaucracy and procedures beyond our control. In both cases, we have observed a sluggish willingness by WHO in facilitating medical evacuation of Sierra Leonean Ebola infected doctors for advance treatment abroad. We lost both Dr Khan and Dr. Buck hung in negotiations.
On the preparedness for the three days ‘ose-to-ose Ebola talk’, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in collaboration with its partners has completed the training of the national supervisors for the three days. Training of the district supervisors has commenced and will be completed today. Cascading training of national and district supervisors to the bulk of the 21,000 volunteers will start on Tuesday at local levels.
Government has projected a 15-20 per cent surge in the EVD suspected cases from communities across the country during the ‘ose-to-ose Ebola talk’. In response, the EOC has expanded the number of holding centres and trained more staff to man them as well as increased logistical support at districts level to enable local authorities to adequately respond to the anticipated spike in EVD suspected cases.
There is an increased level of compliance with Government policy to report all cases of deaths for certification before burial thus the increased demand on the burial teams to respond to dead bodies. In response, Government has increased the number of burial teams in Freetown to nine from four. The burial team coordinator has trained 26 dispatch riders to respond and collect samples from bodies for same-day testing and provided eighteen burial vehicles to the Western Area teams, where the demand for burial is most prevalent. Separate numbers [+23279557733 and +23299671521] have been created specifically to respond to burial calls. The numbers of burial teams have been increased across the country to meet nationwide burial demands.
In response to the overall anticipated increase in suspected cases after the ‘ose-to-ose Ebola talk’ exercise, Government has brokered bilateral cooperation with the Chinese, the Russians and the Cubans who would be manning holding and treatment centres across the country.
Government also wishes to inform the public that the Aljazeera article by Ashley Hamer publish on the 13th of September, 2014 that “Ebola support staff are supposed to be paid 500.000SLL ($110) per week but have been working for free in Kenema for the past two weeks” is a blatant lie and an unfounded assertion to foster sensation and yellow journalism. The nurses are paid their normal salaries; we concede delay in timely payment of incentives because of bureaucracy and tardiness by some Ministry staff members who are responsible to prepare payment vouchers. Funds have been disbursed for the payments of all incentives. We take great exception to the statement that the nurses are “working for free”. It is farfetched and is not helping the already gloomy situation here in Sierra Leone.
We hereby encourage all health care workers to continue their courageous and patriotic service to the people of Sierra Leone. Government has improved on and scaled up on the logistical flow and supply chain of protective gears to health care workers as well as the payments of incentives. Please be very careful in carrying out this Godly service on behalf of your country. Your service to Sierra Leone is priceless.
I thank you all.
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