No pay yet as doctors’ strike bites
What you need to know:
- Some patients cried and said they would not leave until they were treated. One of them, Peter Mwabege, was writhing in pain on the corridor.
- A doctor said the fate of HIV/Aids and TB patients hang in the balance. Nurses threatened to go on strike too.
There was no end in sight to the strike at the Coast General Hospital on Friday with doctors saying they were yet to receive their July pay.
Those who spoke to the Nation expressed disappointment with Governor Ali Hassan Joho and other officials who had promised that workers’ salaries would be wired to their accounts by yesterday.
Desperate patients continued to linger on the corridors of the biggest referral hospital in the region hoping for assistance from the striking doctors and nurses on a go-slow.
HIV/ AIDS AND TB
Some patients cried and said they would not leave until they were treated. One of them, Peter Mwabege, was writhing in pain on the corridor.
“I am not going anywhere. Let me die knowing that I came for help but did not get any. God will take care of us,” he said.
Many others gave up and went home.
A doctor said the fate of HIV/Aids and TB patients hang in the balance. Nurses threatened to go on strike too.
Contacted, acting Health Executive Tendai Mtana Lewa said the county was paying salaries.
“We have begun paying the workers, including the governor. The exercise started yesterday and it is ongoing. By the end of the day they will all have been paid. We are running the whole payroll and it is taking time,” he said.
