Village Health Workers Down Tools Over Pay

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU – ABOUT 8 300 Village Health Workers (VHW) downed tools this week in protest over poor pay, paralyzing the delivery of health services at the basic level countrywide.

The workers are demanding a M2 844 monthly wage, up from the current M800 per month.

In January 2023, the Labour Court ordered the Ministry of Health to pay the village health workers a salary of M2 844 per month.

But two and half years later, that order is still to be implemented, which torched the anger of the workers.

Health Minister Selibe Mochoboroane told thepost yesterday that“going on strike will only worsen the situations in the already struggling ministry”.

“They recently took their grievances to parliament where officials from the Ministries of Health, Finance, and Public Service were summoned and given instructions to pay them,” Mochoboroane said.

“They know that their grievances are being attended to, their issue is on the table,” he said, adding that“we are wholeheartedly doing our utmost to solve the problem”.

“I don't see how going on strike will solve the problem.”

Mochoboroane said the strike“has hit the ministry hard because these are the cornerstone of our primary health care, there in the villages, in the hard-to-reach areas of the country”.

“Their contribution in the primary health care is invaluable, we get all the data from the villages through them,” he said.

Their trade union, Lesotho Workers Association (LEWA), says they will only resume duties when the government has complied with the court order and paid them.

The LEWA secretary general, Hlalefang Seoaholimo, told thepost last night that“it has been a long time since the order was issued and at all this time the government showed no genuine intention to pay the workers”.

“They should be paid,” Seoaholimo said.

In an article titled“The impact of the Lesotho health reform in the re-structuring of the village health workers program”, Afom T Andom et al show that VHWs in Lesotho“are key members of the primary health workforce”.

The article, published in February this year, says the workers have been playing a significant role in building primary health systems and can fill significant gaps in human resources as low and middle income countries work towards universal health coverage in the era of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2014 Lesotho health reform restructured the VHW programme to compensate, professionalise, and integrate VHWs into primary care services.

“When VHWs are well-incentivized, monitored, and supervised they can better fulfil their essential role as the backbone of the primary health workforce,” the article said.

Lesotho, it showed, has a gross shortage of skilled and trained health workers with the number of doctors per 10 000 at 0.9 and the number of nurses per 10 000 standing at 10.2.

The country does not have a medical school to produce more doctors and, as a result, most of the health facilities are run by nurses.

“Lesotho uses task shifting to cover the shortage of workforce in their health systems,” the article said.

“VHWs in Lesotho have been part of the health system since the 1970s. They play a critical role in improving the health system of the country, particularly at the primary health care level,” it said.

It said VHWs started in Lesotho as volunteers with no incentives but over the years the government revised their roles and responsibilities, provided incentives, amid efforts to integrate them into the mainstream of health workers.

Lesotho has the second-highest HIV prevalence at 22.7 percent and TB incidence of 664 per 100 000 in the world, and among the highest rates of maternal mortality of 566 deaths per 100 000 live births and infant mortality rate of 39 deaths per 1 000 live births.

Staff Reporter

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