Staff of Omdurman Teaching Hospital in Sudan on strike

The medical staff of the Omdurman Teaching Hospital announced a general strike on Wednesday, after relatives of a patient assaulted three women doctors.

“Despite an attempt by the doctors to file a complaint, the management of the hospital did not take any action,” doctor Abdelgader Ginat told Radio Dabanga.

He said that the strikers demanded the arrest of the assailants, more protection, and the improvement of the working environment.

“The doctors in Sudan have to perform their humanitarian duty in very poor conditions, while they are badly paid, and increasingly being harassed and assaulted,” he explained. “This situation has prompted tens of thousands of doctors the last couple of years to search for better paid jobs and safer working places abroad.”

Last Friday, a police officer hit a woman doctor in the Khartoum Academic Hospital, when she refused to refer his sick relative to surgery as he demanded. The police declined to accept her complaint, arguing that they cannot take legal action against a fellow officer.

Doctor Ginat also reported that recently women doctors have forcefully been evicted from the medics’ hostels in Khartoum. “Neither the Ministry of Health, nor the Doctors’ Union have taken any action.”