- Title: Liberian medical workers hold nationwide strike
- Date: 25th September 2019
- Summary: MONROVIA, LIBERIA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2019) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE OF LIBERIA'S BIGGEST HOSPITAL, JOHN F. KENNEDY HOSPITAL TOWER EMPTY CORRIDOR IN HOSPITAL EMPTY WAITING ROOM IN HOSPITAL ENTRANCE OF COUNTY HEALTH TEAM HEAD OFFICE IN MONROVIA CHAIN LOCKING DOOR OF COUNTY HEALTH TEAM HEAD OFFICE MONROVIA, LIBERIA (SEPTEMBER 24, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOTHERS AND BABIES SITTING AND WAITING IN FRONT OF DU-PORT HEALTH CENTER GATE IN A MONROVIA SUBURB (SOUNDBITE) (Kreyol) MOTHER WAITING TO SEE DOCTOR WITH HER BABY, GIFTY HARRIS, SAYING: "I'm here for treatment, but the government does not want to pay the workers, so they won't tend to us. We are sitting and our children are sick, and they told us not to enter the gate, that's why we are sitting outside. If your child is sick, and you just buy medicine, if something happens to the child they will ask you 'why didn't you bring the child to the hospital?'" (SOUNDBITE) (Kreyol) THREE MONTHS PREGNANT MOTHER TO BE, 19-YEAR-OLD RUTH FLOMO, SAYING: "If anything happens to us right now, the government will be responsible, because the nurses are not helping because they are not getting paid. Their children are not going to school. They have to pay them. I was here yesterday, and no way, today I'm here, no way." VARIOUS OF EMPTY CORRIDORS IN KIDINJI COMMUNITY CLINIC IN MONROVIA SUBURB PREGNANT WOMAN AND MOTHERS WITH BABIES WAITING TO SEE HEALTH WORKER VARIOUS OF BABIES IN MOTHERS' ARMS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT MOTHER TO BE, 21-YEAR-OLD NIOME TARR, SAYING: "I'm not feeling good about this, because the place is not supposed to be close. We were many this morning but everybody is gone. People's children were sick and came for treatment. This is not okay for the place to be closed." VARIOUS OF HEALTH WORKERS IN MEETING CHANTING: "Injury to one, injury to all, the people united can never be defeated." (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE LIBERIAN NATIONAL HEALTH WORKERS UNION, GEORGE POE WILLIAMS, SAYING: "The strike action is due to the issues that have to do with the lack of medical supplies, laboratory supplies in the various hospitals across the country, where in patients come to the hospitals and we are not able to treat them, give them the medications that they need, have the right prescription for them to go out. And the fact that there are no chemicals, laboratory agents in the hospitals and even equipment to do proper diagnosis of cases of patients, and so many times patients have to be referred out of the country or they have to seek treatment outside of Liberia, we think this is not right." MONROVIA, LIBERIA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2019) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERED ON ROAD WOMEN BLOCKING ROAD TO PROTEST AGAINST NOT GETTING MEDICAL TREATMENT VARIOUS OF SECURITY OFFICER SPEAKING WITH PROTESTERS WOOD AND BRICKS USED TO BLOCK ROAD PROTEST ONGOING
- Embargoed: 9th October 2019 14:00
- Keywords: health workers strike salary payments lack of medical supplies Liberian government patients forcibly discharged
- Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
- City: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
- Country: Liberia
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001AY5NKGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The white halls of Liberia's largest hospital are empty and a heavy padlock on its gate keeps patients waiting outside, sitting in the street in hope of treatment.
A medical workers' strike in Liberia has paralyzed the country's already faltering health care system, leaving its biggest hospitals in disarray, patients prematurely discharged or turned away.
"We are sitting and our children are sick, and they told us not to enter the gate," said Gifty Harris, a young mother sitting by a blue wall, her baby on her lap. "I'm here for treatment, but the government do not want to pay the workers."
"If anything happens to us right now, the government will be responsible, because the nurses are not helping because they are not getting paid. Their children are not going to school. They have to pay them. I was here yesterday, and no way, today I'm here, no way," added 19-year-old Ruth Flomo who is three months pregnant.
In other Monrovia clinics, the same problem, empty corridors, women waiting with their babies to see a doctor who is not going to see them.
"I'm not feeling good about this, because the place is not suppose to be close. We were many this morning but everybody is gone. People's children were sick and came for treatment. This is not okay for the place to be close," said five months pregnant mother to be, 21-year-old Niome Tarr.
Liberia is still recovering from an Ebola outbreak that killed more than 4,800 people in the country from 2014 to 2016, including more than 150 healthcare workers.
Government medical staff are protesting against low wages and backlogged salary payments, as well as poor working conditions that include shortages of crucial equipment and regular electricity blackouts.
"The strike action is due to the issues that have to do with the lack of medical supplies, laboratory supplies in the various hospitals across the country, where in patients come to the hospitals and we are not able to treat them, give them the medications that they need, have the right prescription for them to go out. And the fact that there are no chemicals, laboratory agents in the hospitals and even equipment to do proper diagnosis of cases of patients, and so many times patients have to be referred out of the country or they have to seek treatment outside of Liberia, we think this is not right," said George Poe Williams, secretary general of Liberia's health workers' union, adding the group had been negotiating with the government for three months before launching the strike.
Williams said the union plans to continue the strike until the government shows a willingness to adhere to their demands.
Representatives of Liberia's health ministry declined to comment.
During a press conference on Monday (September 23), Liberia's finance minister Samuel Tweah said that the government was doing "everything possible" to clear salary payments that have been backlogged since August, and that health workers should return to their posts while the government negotiates with union leadership.
Patients in critical condition who occupied beds before the strike began have been allowed to remain in the public hospitals, but all others have been either discharged prematurely or turned away upon arrival. Williams estimates that 10% of the country's medical patients have had to be forcefully discharged.
Meanwhile angry patients on Monday blocked the road one of Monrovia's community hospital in anger because they could not receive treatment.
(Derrick Snyder, Christophe Van Der Perre) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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