Doctors treating COVID-19 patients in Sierra Leone has gone on strike over unpaid bonuses, leaving patients in some of the main treatment centres without care, Polity reports health workers said. The strike marks an escalation in a row between doctors and government over what doctors say is a misuse of funds for the coronavirus response in the small West African country, and a lack of protection and compensation for health workers.
Doctors say that they were promised hazard pay for their work during the outbreak, but that the pay has not come.
Government officials could not be reached for comment.
Since the outbreak began, around 20% of Sierra Leone's total coronavirus expenditure, or nearly $850,000, went to procuring 30 new SUVs and 230 motorbikes for the Emergency Operations Centre, Office of National Security, police force, and military, according to procurement reports released by Sierra Leone's finance ministry on 22 May.
The only medical equipment listed on that procurement report was eight ventilators, which cost the finance ministry approximately $85,285.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Health Ministry’s COVID-19 situation reports routinely describe a lack of funds to pay for contact tracers. Doctors complain of a lack of protective equipment like gloves, masks and coveralls vital to prevent infections spreading from patients to hospital staff.
Of the some 1,500 COVID-19 cases confirmed in Sierra Leone, 160 have been health workers. The country's ranks of medical staff were already hit hard during an Ebola outbreak from 2014-16 that killed 250 medical workers out of a total of only around 4,000.
[link url="https://www.polity.org.za/article/sierra-leone-doctors-strike-leaves-covid-19-patients-stranded-2020-07-03"]Full Polity report[/link]