Hundreds of Sierra Leonean health workers at the only Ebola treatment center in southern Sierra Leone went on strike against the government on Wednesday over unpaid hazard payments, Reuters reported.
Hundreds of Sierra Leonean health workers at the only Ebola treatment center in southern Sierra Leone went on strike against the government on Wednesday over unpaid hazard payments, Reuters reported.
Health workers at the clinic in Bandajuma near the Bo district are protesting against the Sierra Leonean government over their failure to pay them their weekly $100 hazard payment. A few health workers are still helping out at the clinic.
The clinic has roughly 60 beds for Ebola patients, one-fifth of Sierra Leone’s total Ebola beds. Sierra Leone is seeing more new Ebola cases because it does not have many treatment centers, according to the United Nations (UN). In its November 6 weekly report, the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) recomended that Sierra Leone increase the number of treatment centers in the country from 288 to 1,864 by December.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which runs the clinic, pays for the workers' basic salaries. Mohamed Mbawah, a representative of the striking workers, said that the government has not paid for their hazard payments since September and that the strike would end if the government reimburses them.
“An ambulance has just been turned away with a patient because the workers cannot go into the clinic if allowances are not paid,” Mbawah told Reuters.
MSF has already stated that it would shut down the treatment center if the workers continue to strike.