The youths in Lui Payam in Mundri East County, Western Equatoria State, over the weekend, wrote a letter to protest the scaling down of services and downsizing of staff at Lui Hospital.
At the end of last month, Doctors with Africa CUAMM, an Italian medical organization, handed over the Lui Hospital to a National Non-Governmental Organization (NNGO), Support for Peace and Education Development Program (SPEDP), which started running the hospital effective 1 July.
The new organization downsized staff from 141 to 73, causing job losses. The community now says the staff left are insufficient to meet their needs.
In the letter seen by Radio Tamazuj, the youth highlighted that the Eye clinic, TB Department, Sleeping Sickness Department, Outpatient Department, and Injection Room among others had ceased operations.
“The youth point out that they will not allow SPEDP to do only emergency in the hospital. Let them provide full service to the entire community as mentioned above. We are not against any NGOs but if there is no service, we will react or act,” the letter read in part. “As youth, we want to see that all the staff left by CUAMM are reinstated. So, we have given them 48 hours to leave the hospital if they cannot meet the conditions given above immediately from the date of this letter.”
Efforts to reach the hospital’s management were futile.
Last week, the commissioner of Mundri East Community warned the youth in the area against interfering with Lui Hospital.