Frontline COVID-19 health care workers have given the minister of health until Thursday July 9 to respond to their demands, as they threaten to stage a strike.
The country’s frontliners have been moaning over their welfare amid reports they have engaged the ministry of health over the issue.
In a letter to the minister of health dated July 6, the frontline health workers while expressing shock over the death of a senior nurse said they want their demands to be met.
The frontliners said in their letter to the minister of health, seen by The Fatu Network: ” We are shocked and sadden to hear the sudden dead of our dear brother and colleague Mr. Maw Ceesay a veteran nurse at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital. We could not hold our tear when we learnt he died of COVID19. We wish to extend our condolences to you and the entire ministry as we believe your grief must be overwhelming over the loss of one of your front liners in this trying moments of the pandemic.
“This letter is a follow up of demands made by front liners to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health for effective service delivery. We are reliably informed that in previous correspondences that payments would be made based on risk stratification; high, medium and low. These strata would attract daily payment rate 500, 300 and 250 Dalasi respectively. Up to this moment, not much has been done. During our recent meeting with the PS at Kotu on 3rd July 2020, we were informed that allowances would be paid soon and it will be a one off payment. After the meeting, a lot of queries were raise as we do not know what rates were used for the final computation of the allowance.”
The frontliners have set up a taskforce that came up with five demands ‘which are to be met for continuation of the response on COVID 19’.
They include health insurance, feeding, accomodation, allowances and rest and recuperation packages.
On the issue of allowances, the frontliners told the health minister that it’s non-negotiable.
They said: “For motivation of the front liners and to ensure continuity of the response, a decent incentive package (allowance) must be provided for front liners. The team agreed a rate of 750 Dalasi per day for the entire COVID 19 response activity and this will be back dated to January and March 2020 when the response started. This rate is flat and is non-negotiable.”
The frontliners have now given the health minister until Thursday to respond to their demands.
“We expect a response from you on the demands made above on or before 9th July 2020. If we do not get any feedback by this date, there will be no response activity on COVID 19 until all of the demands are met,” they threatened.
