By: Ilyasa Baa
The Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association ( SLMDA) has given the government of Sierra Leone until July 31st to address issues affecting their members especially with regards their fuel supply.
By statutory provision, civil servants including doctors and nurses above grade nine are entitled to forty – five litres of fuel a week but according to the SLMDA, they have not been given a single drop since this year started.
President of SLMDA, Dr. Edries Tejan said less than 8% of what they were supposed to be supplied was given to them for the year 2021, adding that when the association approached the Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance for explanation, they received no information. He reported saying that the Ministry promised to get on to them but did not receive any call from them on the issue. He pronounced that they would down tools if their fuel concern is not met by the end of the month.
A young medical doctor at the Connaught Hospital told this medium that he received his supply of fuel last year only twice and has not received anything since this year started.
‘With a salary of Le 6.7 million (one currency) and the current inflation, how can I take care of myself and make my family happy”,? the Doctor asked.
Our sources within the corridors of the Ministry have hinted us that the Ministry has to streamline the budgets of Ministries, Departments and Agencies accordingly noting that the association did not have patient to listen to what the Ministry had to say on the issue.
Activists in Freetown are calling on the government to settle the issue since preventing a crisis is much better than managing it. They said as essential workers, each medical doctor is entitled to the 2340 litres allocated annually expressing that the fuel supplied should also cover the week ends as it is not the case currently.
On June 4th, 2022, SLMDA held its midterm congress which had brought together medical practitioners on the theme: Improving the welfare of Doctors in Sierra Leone: the way forward in rebranding the healthcare system. There was a symposium on: Achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2030 and a scientific session which delved into the areas of the control on cervical cancer, Stop the Bleed in Rural Sierra Leone as well as Child Health and Immunization.
Discussing their salary breakdown, the Doctors had unanimously called on government to adjust their salaries and improve on their conditions of service which they described as unsatisfactory considering their role in society. They dilated on issues surrounding the removal of Covid 19 risk allowance from their package even though the pandemic is not over yet. Rental allowance was called for as well as the translation of fuel allowance into transportation allowance since not all the medical practitioners or Doctors can afford to buy vehicle. There was a call for the association to hire corporate lawyers to help put the document together to approach government after surveys have been carried out to compare their conditions of service with Doctors in other countries in the sub region.
