Sierra Leone hospital staff strike over Ebola payments

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/24/sierra-leone-hospital-strikes-over-ebola-payments

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The Sierra Leonean government’s attempt to finally contain Ebola this Christmas with a five-day lockdown was dealt a setback after staff at a hospital went on strike.

Pregnant women in Sierra Leone’s third largest town have been left without health care after doctors, nurses and support staff downed tools, claiming they are owed more than £70,000 by the government in outstanding Ebola hazard payments.

The Magbenteh community hospital in Makeni sees around 30 pregnant women a day, but on Christmas Eve sent patients home and refused to admit new ones.

They said the government has not been paying the $45 a week hazard payment since September despite aid flooding into the country.

“Staff are very angry. A doctor and people from the Ebola command centre came here last week to get a list of all the names of the staff but we have got no money,” Henry Conteh, the staff representative told the Guardian.

Following several strikes over non payment of risk allowances, the government last week switched from cash distribution to an electronic phone payment system through the Airtel phone network.

“People here are struggling, some are going hungry because they have not been paid and then they went out and got or borrowed Airtel phones just to fulfil the requirements and then no money arrives. They feel that they are being provoked, they are very angry,” Conteh said.

The charity that runs the hospital is running out of money and over the last three months has paid only 50% of staff’s basic pay.

The Swiss Sierra Leone Development Foundation has appealed for aid since the Ebola outbreak began. It runs the only hospital in the area dealing with maternal health care, which is perceived as risky because of the exposure to blood and bodily fluids.