Medics demand risk payment

By John Eremu THE Medical Workers Union has demanded compensation for health workers killed by Ebola in Gulu. Union chairman Apollo Nyangasi and the general secretary Dr. Sam Lyomoki, in separate statements yesterday, also called for the urgent passing of the Occupational Safety and Health Bill 2000 now before Parliament. The unionists conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and threatened a nationwide strike if the compensation is delayed. "Anyone dillydallying on the issue of compensating the aggrieved families is an enemy to the workers," Lyomoki said. "We are going to mobilise workers throughout the country to rally behind this cause until justice is achieved," he said. Twelve nurses and one medical doctor have died of Ebola in Gulu since the fever broke out there about two months ago. They are suspected to have contracted the deadly disease from their patients. The Director General Health Services, Prof. Francis Omaswa, has said the dead health workers will be compensated. But Nyangasi has dismissed the statement as a cover-up. "Omaswa's statement promising compensation is escapism. For many years, they have never compensated any worker. How can he come up with the statement now and expect us to believe him? It is just a cover-up," Nyangasi told The New Vision. Lyomoki, who is also the workers' MP, said the medical union and the National Organisation of Trade Unions had dispatched a team to Gulu and Lacor hospitals to assess the concerns of workers over the Ebola. Nyangasi said the death of the medical workers showed that their struggle for better terms and conditions of service since 1995 were real. Health workers were now paying with their lives, he said. He said unless adequate protection was given to medics, the population risked not getting medical services. Ends.