Africa-Press – Lesotho. Health Minister Selibe Mochoboroane was thrown into a fire-fighting mode after doctors at Motebang Hospital in Hlotse temporarily downed tools over the non-payment of on-call allowances.
Mochoboroane rushed to Motebang Hospital in an attempt to placate doctors who were unhappy with the non-payment of the allowances for the past three years. There were fears that the protest could spread to other government hospitals countrywide.
Dr Mojakisane Ramafikeng, a doctor at Motebang Hospital, told thepost yesterday that the doctors had resolved to behave like all other government employees despite their special calling.
“It is wrong to say we were on strike,” Dr Ramafikeng said.
“Doctors just said since they are not paid for the extra time they work they should come to work at 8am in the morning and knock off at 4.30pm in the (afternoon) like all government workers,” he said.
He would not be drawn into saying whether the association he is leading, the Lesotho Doctors Association, was part of the protest but insisted that doctors countrywide were affected.
Health Ministry’s communications manager, ’Mamolise Falatsa, said for the past three years doctors across all government hospitals have not been paid their call allowances.
Falatsa said Mochoboroane had pledged to ensure that the doctors were paid their allowances when he addressed the doctors on Tuesday. She said the relevant department of the Ministry of Finance has been engaged to prioritise the payment of the allowances.
“Yes, I can confirm that this is the doctors’ concern and the Minister of Health is working on the matter,” Falatsa said.
Dr Ramafikeng said the doctors have been pleading with the government and the ministry to pay them their call allowances for over a decade. He said even when the government began processing the allowances, the payments have not been consistent.
He said their pleas were ignored until they decided to work normal hours like any other working person without putting in the extra hours. “We made sure that we come to work at 8am and go home at 4 or 5pm,” he said.
He said it was this resolution and its execution that forced Mochoboroane to approach them to discuss their problems. Dr Ramafikeng said Mochoboroane had promised the doctors that they would be paid their allowances after the Christmas holidays.
He however said even though they have hope that they will be paid “if the minister fails to fulfill his promise we are still not going to work those extra hours that we would not have been paid for”.
Although Dr Ramafikeng said they were working, some of the patients that thepost met at the hospital said there were no services on Tuesday. “We have been queuing here since early in the morning and now it is approaching evening without seeing any doctors,” a patient said.
A volunteer working at the hospital, who requested anonymity, said “there are rumours of a go-slow at the hospital as the doctors and nurses are overwhelmed with the number of patients they attend to in a day”.
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