By: Melanie Aanyu

Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng has asked health workers deployed in the Ebola treatment unit in Mubende district who are agitating for payment to be a little more patient and not threaten them with striking.

Without giving exact dates of when the money will come through, Dr. Aceng said health workers need to appreciate that there’s a procedure they follow to process their allowances and once that is done, each one of them will receive a daily risk allowance of eighty thousand shillings.

The minister acknowledged that this money is too low compared to the sacrifice that the health workers are making considering that their colleagues have already succumbed to viral hemorrhagic disease which has so far claimed  a total of fifty-five of the 141 people that have so far been confirmed positive.

The health workers had promised to lay down their tools in two days if they don’t receive their pay and their contracts.

According to Dr. Herbert Luswata, the General Secretary of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), some of his colleagues working at the treatment unit located at Mubende district headquarters had indicated to the association that they wanted to lay down tools immediately because they are not sure of who exactly is supposed to pay them.