Striking medics dismissed from northern Sudan hospital

An academic hospital in northern Sudan has dismissed eighteen lab technicians who participated in a strike staged against the deteriorating working environment. Ten others were stopped from entering the hospital.

Doctors of the Meck Nimir hospital in Shendi, River Nile, have denounced the dismissal of their colleagues. The stated that their demands are legit and they have the right to demand improved working environment and services in the hospital.

The strikers have received repeated threats by the administration of the hospital, they said in their press statement on Thursday.

Medics in dozens of state hospitals and clinics across the country went on strike several times in November. They demand protection while working, a pay rise, and better working conditions. Agents of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) continuously detained and questioned the striking medics.

Related to this, the Cancer Research Centre for the treatment of tumors at the Meck Nimir hospital has announced the registration of at least five new patients with cancer every week, coming from River Nile and other Sudanese states.

Dr Awad El Tayeb Ali, a nuclear medicine specialist, told the television channel El Shurooq that at least 50 cases were transferred from other states. He expressed his concern about the increasing record of cancer cases of cancer in Sudan.

The National Cancer Institute in El Gezira in central Sudan reported last week that a hospital in Wad Madani has received 2,340 new cases of cancer this year. In early September, a survey carried out by the Sudanese Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed a growing number of cancer cases in the country.