Striking doctors to discharge all patients at Bor Hospital

The striking doctors in Bor state hospital have resolved to discharge all the patients at the facility today except those in critical condition.

This comes after the Union of Bor State Hospital Staff on Tuesday declared an indefinite strike and rejected any call for patience by Jonglei State Minister of Health Atong Kuol Manyang, vowing to ‘‘continue with the strike while observing medical ethics’’.

The union, comprising doctors, nurses and midwives, is demanding incentives from the government.

Atong had requested the state medical workers to remain calm as the government was resolving their issues. 

She said the Care International—the organisation that had been supporting the hospital—had replaced Medicos Del Mundo to equip the state hospital with medicine as well as to give remuneration to staff in solidarity with patients.

 “What happened is that the greater Bor, that is Bor South, Duk County and Twic East, had their MDM as its implementing partners in the area of health. But their contract ended and Care International was supposed to take over in September, so this transition period has caused some delays in terms of paying the incentives,” Atong explained. 

“The administration is currently talking with the staff to be patient because the ministry is working on it. The delay is not on the side of the government but because of the transition.”

In response, Dr Gop John, a medical doctor in the pediatric department at Bor State Hospital said they will continue with the strike until their needs are met. 

However, he said they agreed to assign some doctors to care for patients in critical condition and that they will not receive new patients in the Out-Patient and Emergency departments.

“We shall continue with our strike if our needs are not met. But we have our medical ethics, we shall not leave our patients to die,” Dr Gop stressed.

Strike

Anyieth Malaak, the head of the Pediatrics Department, said unpaid incentives were the priority but since Medicos Del Mundo (MDM) pulled out, provision of services to patients has been a challenge due to lack of drugs.

“They have also [said] that the hospital has run into a shortage of medicine. Medicos Del Mundo has pulled out and it is not clear which other partner has taken over the role…there are no emergency drugs, even mere paracetamol is not there,” Malaak lamented.

He stressed that the government must swiftly respond to save the wanting situation. 

Medicos Del Mundo was contracted by UNICEF and UNICEF had been directing funds from World Bank to MDM so that health workers could be paid and drugs provided.

Medical workers complained that MDM had not surfaced for three months and that for a couple of years the drugs had been insufficient in the state hospital.

They in most cases they refer the patients to private pharmacies and clinics to buy the drugs.

Donations

Media reports have revealed the World Bank and UNICEF were in collaboration to implement $53.5 million projects in South Sudan.

The project was to champion COVID-19 vaccine deployment and the provision of health services to the utterly vulnerable citizens in Jonglei and the Upper Nile States.

The two organizations agreed to support the Ministry of Health through stewardship of the South Sudanese Health System, planning, and program implementation.

UNICEF had been implementing this World Bank health sector project that was initiated in 2018. The project provided maternal and child health services in Jonglei and Upper Nile State.

126,489 children have been immunized with the penta3 vaccine and 127,912 children immunized with measles vaccine. 

55,404 pregnant have benefited from antenatal care services and 20,651 newborn babies have been delivered by skilled health personnel through the project.

The project has delivered 587 tons of medical supplies including medicines, soaps, buckets and water purification tablets for 685,000 citizens in both states.