Health

Yaounde Emergency Centre: Patients exposed to health risks as staff begin indefinite strike.

Some staff of the Yaounde Emergency Centre, best known by its French acronym, CURY, have downed tools in protest over what they have qualified as poor work conditions and months of unpaid salaries among several other complaints.

The strike action went underway Monday May 22, 2023. The health workers stepped out of the hospital, brandishing placards bearing several messages.

Others later stormed the Ministry of Public Health, MINSANTE, to show their discontent. Some of the writings on the placards indicated that they have been working for nine years without pay or contracts.

In addition, the striking workers are also decrying what they told reporters are terrible working conditions. Some said, even when they try to complain, authorities always threaten to sanction them or claim they are interns.

The protesting healthcare providers also said they lack job security and other social benefits despite the years put at the service of the public. They have promised to carry on with the strike from 7:30 am to 2:30pm daily until their demands are met.

They are also said to have disclosed that there are some 27,000 persons who constitute 60 percent of the workforce without any work contracts. One of them said: “A nurse in distress is more dangerous than a soldier at the war front”.

According to one of the protesting nurses, they had informed hierarchy of a potential strike if their concerns were not looked into. The same source said the notification was made on May 4. Our respondent said the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, did not react to their concerns.

They are also pressuring Yaounde to increase the salaries of nurses in categories one to six to 75,000 FCFA and 95,000 FCFA for nurses in categories seven to 12. They also said what is usually given to them from time to time has never been enough to meet the needs of their families.

About the situation of CURY, some said most equipment are obsolete. The situation, they said, limits the capacity of the hospital to attend to patients.

A nurse said: “Sometimes, we have critical cases but we cannot handle them because we lack modern equipment”. The same nurse said the outcome of such situations has always been accusations of neglect when a patient dies.