Modilon staff to stage sit-in

STAFF at the Modilon Hospital in Madang plan to stage a sit in protest today as a show of disgust at Health Minister Sasa Zibe’s alleged failure in taking action on administrative issues affecting the hospital.
At least 50 health workers gathered yesterday to discuss this and Hugh Saweni, a spokesman for the hospital, said they were in full support.
The wards that are expected to close are the outpatient, children’s outpatient, antenatal clinic. In patients will continue to be cared for by a scaled down staff.
The main outstanding issue amongst others from their last meeting on Aug 16 is the appointment of the hospital chief executive officer, which has been vacant for the last three years.
The vacancy, they said, had affected a lot of the hospital’s operations as many basic procurements sought by various sections of the hospital have had to be delayed or the wait prolonged causing unnecessary inconvenience to many patients seeking medicine and operations.
A letter dated Aug 16 to Zibe highlighting the need for a “captain for the sinking ship” said due to the minister’s non-committal behaviour, the issue resulted in the staff locking out the acting CEO, acting director of finance and administration and the acting human resource manager in February.
“During the unrest, you (Zibe)  assured us that you would establish the hospital board to facilitate the advertising and recruitment of a CEO and other executive positions. You established the board while the secretary and his team disregarded the Matrix and concerns of the staff.
“How can the staff perform when their morale is low and who is to blame for the dilemma now being faced?”Saweni asked, after reading the letter to the disgruntled workers.
The demand now is for Zibe to immediately address their issues, to remove three-time hospital board chairman, Fr Jan Czuba, whom they claim had done nothing, and had privatised certain parts of the hospital for the explicit use of a certain organisation working within the hospital grounds which they said had “claimed ownership to certain hospital facilities limiting our services to staff and community”.
Saweni also stated that the hospital staff were willing to take the matter further to court if the need arose after their actions today.