South Darfur doctors strike against repeated attacks

Doctors of an educational hospital in Nyala, capital city of South Darfur, have entered into a strike from work since Thursday, in response to the deteriorating security situation and a lack of protection in the hospital. Meanwhile, a hospital in El Gezira took precautions as one patient is suspected of having contracted Ebola. The doctors gave the government 24 hours to protect the workers in the hospital against abusive patients and their relatives. The strikers also demanded from the authorities to take the attacker of two employees, who was a relative of a patient and a member of the government forces, to trial within 24 hours. The medical director of the Nyala Teaching Hospital, Ibrahim El Tawil, pointed out to Radio Dabanga that the strike will involve all sections of the hospital, including the emergency unit. He said that the repeated abuse against doctors lately has been annoying. The latest attack was the sixth in less than a year. “Dr El Taher and physician Suheiba Mubarak Mohamed Ahmed Ezedin were threatened by a relative of a deceased child, who belonged to the government forces. He smashed his phone and used abusive language against the employees,” El Tawil said. The medical director added that the doctors do not have anyone to protect them. He stressed the increase of heavily armed military vehicles around the hospital, and troops entering the hospital, which sparks panic among the doctors. El Tawil accused the state government of not being committed to protect the hospital’s employees from attacks. Suspected Ebola case in Wad Medani The educational hospital in Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira state, took precautions on Wednesday when a patient suspected of contracting the deadly Ebola disease arrived. The patient came from El Fow, and was isolated in the educational hospital. The hospital’s medical services stopped because doctors and specialists feared transmission of the disease. The current situation in Wad Madani was unclear on Friday afternoon. The Ministry of Federal Health has announced that the country is free of Ebola. It confirmed that the cases that appeared in El Gezira state were just severe malaria. File photo: A doctor conducts medical screenings for displaced people in the Kalma camp in Nyala in South Darfur (UN) Related: 111 cancer deaths in Sudan’s El Gezira this year (28 October 2014) Health centre staff strike in Kass, South Darfur (23 October 2014) Strike lifted in South Darfur’s Nyala hospital (12 June 2014)