The Executive and membership of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association (SLMDA) has informed the Government of Sierra Leone to heed to their demands or they will institute a strike action on Monday 1 August 2022.

The doctors gave this warning in a press release issued on Wednesday 26 July 2022, as a follow-up to their 21days Notice and Pending Strike Action.

“On the 7th July 2022, The Executive and membership of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association (SLMDA) held a press conference followed by a letter addressed to the Senior Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation on the 8th July 2022, demanding that Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) addresses two important issues stated below by 31″ July 2022. Failure to do so would result in an indefinite strike action by its members,” the doctors stated.

They noted that the weekly 45 liters of fuel that doctors are entitled to and not receiving should be made available to them immediately.

“It is important to note that there are colleagues who have not received any fuel since the start of 2022 (Jan to date) when in effect they should be getting 45 litres per week. In addition, we suggested that, this fuel allocation should be dissociated from hospital’s allocations and not channel through hospital administrations to ensure that doctors received what they are entitled to,” SLMDA stated.

The medical practitioners, also demanded that MOF reverse the recent deduction from their Net Monthly Take Home Pay effective May 2022 to date, adding that the reversal should also include the backlog effective May 2022 to date.

“It should be noted that this deduction was done abruptly in May 2022 without informing or consulting with the leadership of the SLMDA,” they stated.

“As a follow up to this, the executive of SLMDA was invited by the Honorable Minister of Health and Sanitation for an information sharing meeting on 18th July 2022 during which we were updated on efforts made by the Ministry to address the above concerns. Even though efforts are being made, this has not translated to the results as per our demands above. We are however hoping that our demands are met against midnight of the 31 July 2022 in order to avert the planned strike action,” SLMDA explained.

The doctors therefore informed that they stand by their previous notice and if their above concerns are not addressed by the 31 of July 2022, their membership will trigger an indefinite strike action on 1 August 2022, and they will only resume duty after all their concerns have been addressed accordingly.