Doctors and nurses at Juba Teaching Hospital have called off a strike over allowance arrears. 

Over 200 nurses, doctors and other support staff held a one day strike yesterday, demanding the ministry of health to clear the arrears.

The government introduced the austerity measures following oil production shutdown in January 2012.

Sisto Lomicu Bashir, a representative of the nurses, said they had given the hospital administration a seven-day ultimatum to pay their dues. However, the ministry failed to meet their demand.

The medical personnel have been promised that they will receive the money and the minister will visit them at the hospital to address them.

The chairperson of the hospital staff committee, Nafisa Ladu Modi, urged her colleagues to resume their duties in order to help save lives of the patients at Juba Teaching Hospital.

“What has happened has happened. The Minister of Health, the Minister in the Office of the President and the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health came to us and said this problem must be solved,” said Mr Modi.

“Let all the nurses come to work early in the morning, because the minister is coming at 10:30 to talk to them regarding this problem.”

They threatened to continue with the strike if their dues are not paid.

Juba Teaching Hospital is one of the national hospitals in the country, and it is administered by the National Ministry of Health.