The main government referral hospital in Western Bah el Ghazal State has restarted full operations after work was temporarily disrupted on 11 December when the workers’ union ordered all staff not to work and locked some of the hospital facilities to demand incentives.
The health officials in the state however denied that there was a strike over pay at the time.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, State Health Minister Dr. Francis Michael Hassan clarified that the issue was immediately resolved and that Wau Teaching Hospital is working normally.
“I want to make a brief clarification on what happened at Wau Teaching Hospital on 11 December which was wrongly called a strike. In my capacity as the state minister of health, and according to the Public Service Act and Regulations, it was not a strike,” he explained. “When we talk of a strike, there are procedures and notifications and if the demands are not met, this may lead to a strike. What happened was that members of the workers’ union at the hospital were chasing people away and closing the doors which was a violation.”
“In my capacity as a minister, I immediately sent the director of curative medicine under whose department the hospital falls and they sat with the hospital staff on 12 December and reached an agreement to lift the so-called strike,” Dr. Michael added.
The minister clarified that what happened was a misunderstanding between the hospital’s administration and staff.
“As a public servant, you cannot go on a strike about incentives because it is given as appreciation. The complaint that was raised was about support to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from the International Medical Corps (IMC). Previously, we were in a transitional phase from the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) to UNICEF for three to four months whereby the hospital was not receiving incentives,” the minister explained. “Based on that, the hospital administration decided that the support from IMC be given to all staff so that they are motivated to continue delivering services.”
He added: “When UNICEF took over, the incentives were reinstated, but out from nowhere, we were surprised by what they called strike though it did not follow all the legal procedures of a strike.”
Dr. Michael said a committee from his office led by the director of curative medicine met the hospital on 12 December and clarified the matter to them and work immediately resumed.
“To put it clear to the public, work at the hospital was only disrupted on 11 December, and on 12 December, operations resumed at Wau Teaching Hospital,” he stated. “Based on this incident, I was summoned by the State Transitional Legislative Assembly and I went there yesterday (Tuesday). There were some questions related to the incident and I was able to clarify them to legislatures who were convinced because they had been misinformed.”