The National Association of The Gambia Nurses and Midwives have vowed to temporarily shut down their services countrywide if the ministry of health failed to fulfill the agreement before 4 September, 2021.

Nurses and midwives numbering more than hundred converged at the Arch 22 in Banjul to express their dissatisfaction to the ministry of health and called for a strike until the ministry fulfilled their agreement.

 However, the secretary general of the association said they will allow the nurses who are working at the Labour ward, Emergency, ICUs and the Covid-19 treatment centers to report to work before the 3rd of September and if the ministry failed to fulfill the agreement they will totally shutdown all nursing healthcare service in the country.

 This according to them will last for only three days after which if the ministry failed to fulfill the agreement, there will be a total shutdown of nurses healthcare services in the country. The rest of the nurses are on strike.

Speaking at the press briefing, Ousman Touray, Secretary General of the National Association of The Gambia Nurses and Midwives, said they have been going through a ‘terrible situation’ in this country which they have been silent about for quite a long time.

“Enough is enough. We will be on a strike until the ministry honors the agreement,” he said. He urged the members of the association to stay at home until the ministry honored their agreement.

He said the nurses and midwives have given the ministry enough time to settle the nurses allowance but it looks the ministry is not interested in their wealth fare.

However, he said if the ministry honored the agreement before 4 September, they will go back to work. He denied claims that the ministry is taking cared of the nurses in the country.

He said nurses have been assaulted several times and the ministry has never taken any action against the perpetrators. “This is a clear manifestation that the ministry does not care about the nurses in the country. As nurses, we render services to inpatients and outpatients clockwise. We are underpaid and we are not respected by the ministry,” he said.

He highlighted the challenges they face ranging from salaries, allowance, poor working conditions among other issues that they demand to be fulfilled by the health ministry. “The ways we are being treated in the health sector is unbearable. It is not only about money. All that nurses are asking for us is the minimum,” he said.

He said the payment conditions of nurses in this country is low and they worked for more than 12-18 of their lives while they only spend 4 hours sleeping and 3 hours with their families.

“For instance, an uncalled allowance at the provincial level used to be D200 and this has remained the same. If you work from 8am to 4pm as an in charge in the provinces, from 4pm to the next morning any critical case that happens to appear in the health center, you will be called even if you are sleeping with your wife. This can happen everyday up to 30 days and you are only given 200 dalasi.

A counterpart in the health care profession receives more than 10,000 dalasi for the same allowance. We know problems can never be solved,” he said.

He noted that a problem can only be solved if they are identified as problems. “We owe the nation a duty as nurses; the ministry of health also owes the nation a duty as an institution. If they want to achieve universal health coverage and quality care to the nation, they should do what is expected from them.”

He disagreed with the approval of the allowance by the cabinet and said it only proves to nurses that the health minister does not care about them.

He alleged that the allowances that the ministry is paying to other counterparts can pay the allowance of all the nurses.

Yusupha Sanyang the President of the association reassured the members that any attempt by the ministry to punish any nurse for not reporting to work, the entire nursing services will collapse. “We are not taking the issue as a joke. Enough is enough,” he said.

He described the press release from the ministry of health as ‘misleading most adding that is it just there to cover the ministry so that The Gambian people will think they are paying the nurses allowance.

 

By Dawda Baldeh