Health officials manning the Diabetes Clinic at Matagialalua – including nurses and doctors - have not been paid since July.
What’s more, the workers were told that if they’d like to continue, they would have to work for free. That was when their contracts ended in June.
The confirmation from the Ministry of Health comes days away from Monday when the Clinic will shut its doors, as the authorities contemplate its future.
The decision will affect hundreds of diabetic, heart and hypertension patients who have been looked after by the non-profitable organisation, backed by government funding, for years.
Contacted for a comment, the Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri referred questions from the Weekend Observer to Tagaloa Dr. Robert Thomsen, the Assistant C.E.O Health Services Performance and Quality Assurance for Medical and Allied Health.
According to Tagaloa, the contracts for the workers at the clinic – including private practitioners “ended on 30 June.”
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Although he could not confirm when they were last paid, he said: “I discussed it with them that if anyone wants to continue their services to the patients, it would have to be on a community service Tagaloa explained that the Ministry of Health had advertised for expressions of interest in running the clinic but a decision He also confirmed plans to expand the services provided at the clinic to include patients with conditions other than noncommunicable diseases.
The expansion, he said, would include more opening days and longer opening hours, as opposed to the current opening days of Tuesday to Friday.
“But we can’t do that unless Cabinet endorses it,” said Tagaloa.
“We hope to resolve the matter before the end of this month.”
Registered Nurse, Peleiupu Tautua, declined to discuss their salaries, saying that is a matter for the Ministry of Health.
However, she expressed concerns about the lack of doctors at the clinic as a result of the nonpayment of salaries. Nurse Tautua said herself and four other doctors – including a cardiologist - were on contract. One of them had set up an office in there so that every Friday, patients would visit the Clinic to be checked.
The office no longer exists, she said.
“The problem is that the list of patients waiting to be checked by him has grown since then but there is nothing he can do until his contract is renewed,” she said.
On Thursday, Nurse Tautua said she visited the Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr. Talalelei Tuitama to discuss the issue. She did not reveal what the outcome was.
But she said the Ministry of Health has assured that the closure “is only until the end of October. So we are hopeful.”
Such assurance though is little consolation to patients like Leautuli Suki Su’a, who has been a regular at the Clinic since 2011.
“We walk through those doors with happiness and leave with satisfaction because the service we get here is excellent,” he told the Weekend Observer.
The elderly man from Lotopa was among several patients waiting for treatment yesterday.
Expressing shock at the decision, he said: “You have caught me at a very bad time because I am waiting for my turn to be checked by the staff.”
“Where will we go now? I never thought that this would happen especially since this place provides the best medical assistance and service for people like me.”
Leautuli added that he and many others have learnt so much from the educational programmes provided by the staff there. He is urging the Ministry of Health to reconsider its decision.
The call is echoed by another patient, Tamalemai Faleafulunono, of Safata.
“There are already many divisions at the hospital packed out by so many people,” he said.
“What this means is that if we are to go there, we would have to wait in line for hours before we could get treatment.
“That is not too bad for the younger people but what about the elderly? We like this place because at least you are not waiting for hours to be checked.”
Like Leautuli, Tamalemai issued an impassioned plea to Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi and the Minister of Health, Tuitama to keep the clinic open.
“Please show people like us some love and allow this clinic to stay open.”
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