By Saikou Suwareh Jabai
The Association of Resident Doctors in The Gambia has sworn to continue their protest until the Health Minister resigns over corruption allegations she meted on them.
The corruption allegation which the Minister was quoted as saying and published on the Standard Newspaper was: “When we talk about corruption in the health system, we all know how it is. These young doctors that will just go and practice pharmaceutics, some of them have opened their pharmacies with the resources that we have.” Minister Saffie Lowe Cessay, however, denied making such remarks. On the 6th of March 2018, the resident doctors gave the Minister an ultimatum of 24 hours to resign, which time has elapsed. The doctors began their sit down strike on Friday.
Speaking to the Public Relations Officer of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital Modou Lamin Jammeh, confirmed that the strike began at the country’s main referral hospital on Friday. However Mr. Jammeh was quick to say that the impact of the Doctors sit-down strike was not as huge as people thought; that service delivery is going on well at the hospital because senior doctors have to stretch to cover the gaps.
