By Saidou Baldeh
The Gambia Association of Nurses and Midwives has demanded immediate salary increment as it decries government’s negligence towards them.
Addressing a news conference Monday, the association’s president, Yusupha Sanyang, said nurses and midwives are being unfairly treated by the government despite their tremendous work.
“The vital and crucial role nurses and midwives play in healthcare delivery cannot be overemphasized. Given that important role, we demand sustained availability of materials, good motivational facilities in terms of training opportunities, a conducive and safe environment for patients and above all, we need a good remuneration,” he said.
Sanyang said despite the important role played by nurses and midwives “it is quite disheartening to know that we are constantly affected by inadequate supply of materials to properly perform our nursing duties, few or no training opportunities and above all, very low incentives”.
“This is creating a lot of demotivation for nurses and affects the government’s prospects of retaining the necessary human resources. This results in a chronic shortage of nursing staff which places a huge burden on the remaining few nurses in our health facilities and ultimately the innocent patients cannot have the needed nursing care they deserved,” he said.
He said the association has tried without success to address these challenges through the Ministry of Health.
The association said they have sent a proposal to the Ministry of Health since November 2020 on how these challenges could be addressed.
“A revised allowance was proposed as a means of motivating nurses and midwives who had been sidelined by the recent increment of allowance for doctors and PhD holders but nothing has been done,” he said.
