By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue822@gmail.com
PHOTO: Health Delivery service at a standstill
VOINJAMA, Liberia- A strike action by scores of health workers has left normal operations at the Curran Lutheran Hospital in Zorzor, Lofa County disrupted in this northwestern region, over 304 kilometers from Monrovia.
Curran is a major referral hospital in this area catering for patients including towns on the Liberia-Guinea border.
The striking workers are direct employees of the private faith-based health institution, according to the spokesperson of the aggrieved workers, Jefferson Weefar.
He said the 53-strong personnel want settlement of their arrears as precondition to returning to work.
They include nurses, midwives, physician assistants, anesthetists, cleansers, dispensers, and securities among others.
The workers stay home action is directly in response to the hospital management’s failure to settle their 11 month indebtedness to them (workers).
Meanwhile the Curran Lutheran Hospital’s management has issued a memo calling on the public to stop taking patients to the hospital due to the strike action.
“The management team of Curran Lutheran Hospital extends greetings to sons and daughters of Lofa County and the general public for their many contributions to the hospital during these difficult periods of our country, and wishes to use this medium to inform the general public that as of April 16, 2021 the hospital is officially closed to the public due to the GO SLOW action by the Curran Lutheran Hospital employees as a result of outstanding salary arrears.”
It further disclosed that though GOL assigned staffs at the hospital are at work, they cannot run the hospital alone because there are no support staff such as cleaners, dispensers, securities and maintenance staff among the GOL assigned staffs at the facility. The management of the above mentioned hospital regrets this situation as all negotiations to avert this action by the workers have failed”, the memo dated April 16, 2021 reads.
The issues of salary fatigue and sustainable health delivery at the private run institution located which serves more than 45,000 residents of Lofa, portions of Gbarpolu, Bong and neighboring Republic of Guinea has been a major problem from the 2018 budget year to the present.
The faith based ministry began experiencing budgetary weariness since its annual government operational allocation drastically reduced from a between $250,000 to $300,000USD to a little over $100,000 USD and now $50,000USD, which cannot support the hospital’s annual payroll and operations.
One of the employees of the hospital speaking on the condition of anonymity on Friday April 16 said they are striking for their eleven month salary arrears with repeated failed promises that they were going to settle them.
From the eve of the workers’ strike action report says, critical cases began to be referred to other hospitals including the government run Tellewoyan Hospital in Voinjama, Phebe and the C.B Dunbar Hospitals in Bong and the United Methodist hospital in Ganta Nimba county.
Since the shutting down of the Curran Lutheran Hospital catchment communities with critical health complications in Zorzor, Salayea and Belleh Districts in Lofa and Gbarpolu counties and part of Guinea are now being referred to the Hospitals in Bong and Nimba or already struggling John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia.