More Sudanese doctors join strike for security

The Central Committee of Doctors in Sudan has announced that doctors across Khartoum state and Kordofan have now joined the strike demanding security and protection for medical workers.

Doctors at Omdurman hospital, Bahri, Ibrahim Malik, Ibn Sina, Ali Abdelfattah in El Doroshab, El Bulook in Omdurman, and El Nahud hospital in West Kordofan have now downed tools, with the Committee calling the strike “a 100 per cent success”.

The strikers demand that laws are passed to protect doctors and healthcare staff as they perform their work.

There are reports of patient backlogs at some hospitals due to the strike.

The Sudanese Health Minister Bahar Idriss Abu Garda has denied that any strike has occurred at the hospitals. He pointed out that timely measures to protect doctors and tighten punishment of the offenders have been taken.

Medical and Health Professions Union has raised a memorandum to the Presidency concerning the attacks on doctors and demanded the allocation of police and prosecution to protect the doctors, this along with the provision of life-saving medications in the emergency units.

Dr Husam El Amin said that the doctors’ strike is a natural outcome of deterioration of environment and repeated attacks on doctors without the Health Ministry acting to resolve the problems of the doctors.

Minister

Sudan’s Second Vice-President, Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman, has called for the provision of security at hospitals and the emergency units, as well as adherence to access-control regulations at hospitals.

The official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reports that Abdelrahman was speaking on Tuesday while chairing a meeting of the Council of Ministers assigned to discuss the situation of hospitals.

It was attended by the Chief Justice, the Ministers of Health, Justice and Interior, the Sudan Doctors Union, and the Health Professions Trade Union.

In a statement, Minister of Health, Bahar Idris Abu-Garda, said that a committee was formed to study and solve the phenomenon of assaults on medical cadres, formulating a vision and drastic solutions for the health services and reactivating implementation of the laws and circulars of the Ministry of Justice concerning the health sector.

He said that the Vice-President has affirmed the state's concern with the health sector and its employees as well as the protection of doctors.