The Association of Resident Doctors—The Gambia (GARD) announced yesterday that its members began a sit-down strike. The strike began, according to the organization, because of the failure of Saffie Lowe-Ceesay, the Minister of Health, to retract her ‘defamatory’ statement against doctors of the country, apologize to its members and tender her resignation within twenty-four hours. The Resident doctors announced their list of demands in a press conference on March 6, 2018. The strike is being led by members of the Association of Resident Doctors—The Gambia (GARD), and Medical and Dental Association of The Gambia (MDAG).
Making the announcement yesterday at the University of The Gambia School of Medicine, Neneh Bah, the Vice-President of the association, announced that their demands had a timeline of twenty-four hours after which they will commence a sit-down strike. The twenty-four-hour ultimatum passed yesterday without an official apology from the minister, which the doctors said, triggered a sit-down strike by the doctors. Bah added that a joint task force committee which comprises of the Medical and Dental Association of The Gambia, Association of Resident Doctors—The Gambia, the entire medical fraternity, and representatives from all the health facilities in the country have agreed that their “strike will come in phases.”
In phase one, the doctors will be “offering emergency services only” to patients and the general public as doctors on duty will be available in emergency facilities. They will cover the accident and emergency services, labor wards, and emergency theaters. Bah said that “if our demands are not met at the end of phase one, we would move to phase two.” If the strike advanced to phase two she said, the doctors will “not be offering any services including emergency.” The doctors have not stated when phase two will begin, or the number of phases they planned to execute their demands through the end.
The dispute that led to the sit-down strike came about, the doctors said, as a result of ‘slanderous allegations’ the minister made against members of their fraternity. The minister allegedly made her remarks, according to the doctors, at a press conference during the scientific meeting of the West African College of Surgeons at the Kairaba Beach Hotel. The minister’s statement was published in Standard Newspaper on the February 28, 2018. The minister was lamenting on the challenges her department faces from what she called corrupt and ‘unpatriotic doctors’ in reforming the health sector. The minister was quoted to have said that “when you talk about corruption in the health system we all know it is . . . these young doctors that will just go and practice pharmaceutic, some of them have opened their own pharmacies with the resources that we have. I am very sure of what I am saying because I was the PS.”
Angered by this statement, the Association of Resident Doctors—The Gambia (GARD) organized a press conference on 6 March, 2018 where they condemned the remarks of the minister. The doctors said the remarks were “defamatory” and that they find them “very disappointing and without justification.” They chided the minister that if she “does not understand budgeting, drug procurement down to dispensing, then it shows her incompetence [with] her job.”
In an interview with The Gambia Times, Pa Amadou Sohna, the Public
Relation Officer (PRO) of GARD, said that prior to holding the first press conference, they wrote to the ministry to condemn and express their disappointment in the remarks the minister made against their members. In their statement, he said, they also demanded that the minister retract her statement, apologize, and resign from office. The Ministry neither acknowledged receipt of their letter, nor did it respond to them. This inaction of the authorities at Ministry of Health, he said, prompted the press conference. Sohna added that after the first press conference, “the ministry reached out to us and demand for a meeting, but we turned it down.” He continued to say that “we will proceed with our plan of action; unless our demands are met, we won’t back down or compromise with anyone. What we want is a total reformation of that ministry and we believe she can’t spearhead the reformation process. We have no confidence in her. Thus, we need her changed.”
The President of the Association of Resident Doctors—The Gambia (GARD), Dr. Ebrima Bah, said at the press conference that they are “disappointed in the lack of leadership demonstrated” by the minister. He pointed out that “the lack of responsible leadership, vision, and institutional inertia demonstrated by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is one of the reasons medical doctors work under very unsafe conditions and are constantly exposed to infectious agents.”
Bah said that it is now more than a year since the Barrow administration took over from the previous regime but “the Ministry has been unable to clearly articulate a vision [in] how to go about transforming the health system.” The Ministry lacks “tangible short or long-term plans, such as a plan to provide universal health coverage for a population of two million people,” he added. As an association whose purpose is health advocacy, he concluded, they “will not and cannot, in good conscience, continue to compromise their responsibility to the nation.”
Speaking to The Gambia Times, Momodou A.I. Tekanyi, a Senior Medical Officer, said that the strike is a worthy cause for a sector that has been neglected far too long. He added that the demands of his colleagues are “solid and that the minister needs to retract her statement because it is untrue.” He insisted that the minister “must apologize for the insult and resign.”
While many people disapproved of the remarks of the minister, some also disagreed with the action taken by the doctors to start a sit-down strike. Baturu Mboge, an Independent consultant for the New York State Office for the People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services, told The Gambia Times that “the medical doctors have the right to react to the minister’s statement as they did with the public condemnation.” Expressing concerns on the impact of the strike on population, he said that the “sit-down strike will aggravate the health outcomes for the patients” as The Gambia “can’t afford to have these doctors stay at home.” Confident that the doctors chose their careers in medicine for a higher purpose, he said these medical doctors like their profession and something bigger attracted them to the field.” For this reason, he said “in the end, the Hippocratic Oath and the promise of “do not harm” will prevail” and that “is more than the Minister’s statement.”