The release states that the strike action was a unanimous decision by the Medical and House Officers attached to MOHS to restore the dignity of their noble profession and to avoid the recurrence of the incident that took place on December 9th 2013.
There claim is that the alleged incident which was between their medical colleague and the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Miatta Kargbo, will set a bad precedent.
They added that it was not a plot or any design to kick the Minister out of her office neither was it politically motivated as stated in various newspapers which went on to mention some of their colleagues by name.
According to the release, the Minister on the said date barged into the out patient at Connaught hospital and demanded Dr. Murray to see a patient, when the Doctor was examining a patient who was critically ill. The Doctor however, told the Minister that she had already attended and referred the patient in question to the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH) as she was pregnant. It is alleged that the Minister insisted that the Doctor must see the patient again, which according to them is unethical as the privacy of both patients was not taken into consideration, and that the Doctor continued to examine the critically ill patient which did not go down well with the Minister who went ballistic on the Doctor, raining abuses at her person which attracted a crowd demoralizing the Doctor and the profession.
As a result of this fracas, the Minister instructed the Hospital Management present at the scene to remove the Doctor from the Outpatient department at Connaught, which is not in line with the Civil Service Code of conduct as assignment of Medical Doctors is done by the Chief Medical Officer and not by the Minister. According to the release, this is not the first time the Minister has brought the integrity of the profession to disrepute and if such acts are not discouraged now, the mindset of Doctors performance will be disrupted which will change the psyche in meeting with their professional demands as they need protection from their supervising Ministry.
“In order to attract the attention of the supervising Ministry, and particularly the President of this republic on this issue, we decided to use the only option available to us to lay down our tools. A letter was sent to President Ernest Bai Koroma to reinstate our colleague,” it states, adding that even though series of consultations were held, there requests were not met, but they have decided to suspend their laying down tools on humanitarian grounds.
Addressing the issue of forged signatures of the Doctors who were not in town at the time of signing a list of aggrieved Medical and House Officers, they stated that they did not forge any signature as Doctors absent scanned their signatures and gave their consent to be among the list.
Miatta Kargbo
Reacting to the allegation by Dr Murray, Health Minister Miatta Kargbo said when President Koroma told her that Tony Blair was coming to Town and he will be visiting the Connaught hospital, she instructed the officials at the hospital to make sure it is clean and well kept.
She said last Sunday afternoon, she went to check whether they have cleaned the hospital, but to her shock, the hospital was not cleaned. She had to mobilise the cleaners and other workers whom she paid to make sure they clean the hospital.
Past Monday, she said she was in the company of Tony Blair and Dr T.B. Kamara when a nurse reported to Dr Murray that they have brought in a critically ill patient that needs immediate attention. She said Dr Murray was called in to take care of the patient, but she insisted they should take the patient to her office.
The Minister said she prevailed on her to check the patient but she refused. Dr T.B. Kamara and Dr Taqi were the ones who stabilized the woman before she was taken to Cottage for onward treatment”, the minister said.
Minister Miatta Kargbo said she believes that Dr Murray did not know who she was and that when she called on the senior doctors that were with her Chief Medical Officer Dr Brima Kargbo, Dr Taqi and Dr T.B. Kamara and asked them to take action, they decided to transfer her from Connaught because she is unable to stand the tension at Connaught hospital.
She said when she was instructing Dr Murray to immediately treat the woman Dr T.B. Kamara was there and he will testify if she is lying. She said since she took over that Ministry and has been trying to bring sanity, she has always been treated unfairly because they want her out of the ministry.
Miatta Kargbo said, since the Integrated Project Management Unit was approved by the President with her advice, she has been in the bad books of so many health workers. She said this unit controls every funding coming in the health sector. “In the past individuals source their funding without the knowledge of the ministry and the donor agencies were frowning on that. We had to put this unit together so that we can harmonise all monies coming in the ministry.”
“It was this free funding that made the government to repay about Le500 million of the Gavi funds that was misappropriated. Now every penny connected with the Health ministry comes through this unit and I have been commended by the donors for bringing sanity into the Health funding programmes.”
Miatta Kargbo said she can’t understand why people don’t want to accept change. She said the strike action is beyond what happened between Dr Murray and her as other people have hijacked the strike to get her out of office so they can return to their old ways.
The Minister gave this interview over the telephone from Switzerland, where she had been asked by the World Bank to share her experiences with other developing countries on how she has been able to combat corruption in the health sector in Sierra Leone.
She added that the Pharmaceutical Procurement Unit is now functional and it is being run by the Department for International Department (DfID) officials in a bid to combat fake drugs. She said 15 years ago the SLPP government started it but the pressure they faced they never succeeded. She said Mrs Zainab Bangura too tried but had the same result, “Now I have succeeded and today nobody can bring in drugs into the country without the approval of the unit.” This she said has helped to combat fake drugs in the country. “All these changes are what have made me an enemy in the health sector”.
Miatta Kargbo said she will be back to continue her work and bring in more sanity in the sector.
source : http://awoko.org
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