MONROVIA, Sept 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A medical workers’ strike in Liberia has paralysed the country’s health care system, leaving its biggest hospitals in disarray and thousands of patients without care.
Government doctors, nurses and other staff are protesting against low wages, delayed payments and poor working conditions that include shortages of crucial equipment and regular electricity blackouts.
Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries where most people live without reliable access to electricity and clean water, suffered from a 2013-16 Ebola outbreak that killed more than 4,800 people, including more than 150 healthcare workers.
“We are sitting and our children are sick, and they told us not to enter the gate,” said Gifty Harris, a young mother sitting against a wall with her baby on her lap outside the John F. Kennedy Medical Center, the largest hospital in the capital Monrovia.
“I’m here for treatment, but the government do not want to pay the workers.”
The white halls of the hospital were empty and a heavy padlock on its gate kept patients waiting outside, sitting in the street in hope of treatment.
Union officials said they had been negotiating with the government for three months before launching the strike. They plan to strike until the government adheres to their demands, they said. — NNN-AGENCIES
