Sierra Leone News

The APC government of Ernest Bai Koroma may have been duped, money chopped and victory awarded to the opposition SLPP. But what now seems to be Philip S.J. Lukuley’s dilemma is how to face President Ernest Bai Koroma despite the boast and pageantry that he, Philip S. J. Lukuley of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration SLMA, one time ardent supporter of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, SLPP, would deliver Pujehun to the APC during the just concluded parliamentary Bye Elections conducted by Dr. Christiana Thorpe of the National Electoral Commission, NEC.

The Minister of Defence yesterday ordered the detention of six doctors working at the 34 Military Hospital for officially writing that if their salary is not reviewed as that of their colleagues in the civil service, they will quit the force at the end of the month. According to reliable information these doctors were mistreated to a point that they see themselves psychological not prepared to see patients for next two weeks. “We want our military colleagues and their relations to know that the medics can unconsciously do the wrong thing when they are not in the right frame of mind,” the source said.

Medics working for the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) are excluded from the general increase in salary of doctors and nurses working for the government of Sierra Leone. The Deputy Minister of Health Mohamed Daudis Koroma told The Punch that staff of 34 Military Hospital and Police Hospital Kingtom are not included in the package UNDP provided to increase what was known as starvation allowance of doctors and nurses. Staffs of the forces hospitals say the increase is discriminatory and undermines efficiency. They have therefore threatened to resign if government refuses to ensure that they are paid the same salary as their colleagues in the civil service.

“When medics in the Connaught, PCMH and other government hospitals went on strike, we were called upon to fill the gap; and now that President Koroma has announced an increase, we in the forces are pushed out,” a senior doctor in the SLP Hospital Kingtom remarked and threatened, “we will quit and join our colleagues outside if nothing is done to address this unfair situation.”  

“We are resigning at the end of the month if nothing absolutely is done to address the issue,” a 34 Hospital staff said.

On April 27 Independence Day, President Koroma launched Free Health Care for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five. Sadly, the 34 Military Hospital and the Police Hospital Kingtom haven’t received any drug in promoting the free health care pronouncement. “Suckling mothers are rushing daily to 34 even though we have been telling them that there are no drugs for them specifically,” a 34 Hospital nurse said.