Ebola hospital staff go on strike

Staff at an Ebola ward in a hospital in Sierra Leone have gone on strike, claiming that the government is refusing to pay them,

13 September 2014, 9:45am

2 min read

Staff at an overcrowded Ebola ward at a major hospital in Sierra Leone have gone on strike over claims that the government is refusing to pay them.

Around 80 workers blocked Kenema Government Hospital’s entrance on Friday, bringing operations at the Ebola treatment ward to a standstill.

This is the latest in a series of strikes at the same hospital by staff protesting poor working conditions, low salaries, and infection rates among colleagues.

The workers were recruited nationally to boost staff numbers at the hospital. They operate in a ‘high-risk’ zone, treating the sick, disinfecting contaminated equipment, cleaning faeces, vomit and blood, and removing and burying corpses.

The hospital caters to a population of 700,000 in the Ebola-stricken nation. It was the first hospital to admit Ebola cases in Sierra Leone as it was believed to be the only hospital with appropriate equipment. The Ebola facility in the hospital was set up this summer on the same site as non-Ebola medical operations. However, several non-Ebola wards are now deserted after workers fled out of fear for the disease.

Hospital staff say that more than 38 of its doctors and nurses have been infected and died of Ebola since the recent outbreak began, amongst them renowned physician Dr. Sheik Umar Khan.

Ebola support staff are supposed to be paid 500,000SLL ($110) per week but have been working for free over the past two weeks.

Around 2,400 people have died since the recent Ebola outbreak broke out in March. Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been the hardest hit.

"The Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of West Africa is the largest and most complex and most severe in the almost four-decade history of this disease," World Health Organisation director Margaret Chan said on Friday. She urged urgent international support in sending doctors, nurses, medical supplies and aid to the worst-affected countries.

"The thing we need most is people," she said. "The right people, the right specialists, and specialists who are appropriately trained and know how to keep themselves safe."