Santé publique : Mballo Dia Thiam dénonce un discours présidentiel « en décalage avec les urgences du terrain »
The President's speech on health left a sense of incompleteness among those working in the sector. For Mballo Dia Thiam, "the announcements made are largely insufficient given the profound crisis facing the Senegalese health system, in terms of human resources, funding, and structural reforms." According to Thiam, the announcement of 3,500 new healthcare workers and 2,500 to 2,700 new hires at the Ministry of Health falls far short of meeting the real needs. "It's a negligible amount. Out of 18,000 workers to be recruited, seeing the health sector only manage 2,700 poses a real problem," he laments. He also points to the low level of funding allocated to the sector: "217 billion CFA francs, or about 3% of a national budget estimated at 7 trillion CFA francs, a budgetary choice he considers incompatible with the stated ambitions."
The real problem: the way things work, not the infrastructure
Contrary to the official narrative, which often focuses on infrastructure construction, Mballo Dia Thiam believes the heart of the problem lies elsewhere. “We don’t really have an infrastructure problem, but a problem with the functioning of what’s available. Our struggle is to ensure that the bare minimum that exists is functional. And the president hasn’t addressed this.” According to him, this situation condemns people to continue financing their own healthcare, perpetuating catastrophic household expenses.
Another source of disappointment is the lack of clarity on major reforms underway or planned, including: "hospital reform, the healthcare map, and the Health Code." "It's not a problem of texts. The fundamental problems in healthcare are human resources, financial resources, and equipment," he insists.
He advocates instead for a comprehensive update of the Health Code, coherently integrating other reforms, rather than a mere juxtaposition of texts. Mballo Dia Thiam also regrets the complete absence of any reference to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the presidential address, which, according to him, requires holistic and systemic funding. "There too, nothing was said about it," he laments.
A social crisis that has been ignored
Finally, the union leader denounced the President's silence on the social crisis in the health sector, particularly the delay in signing the decree integrating senior health technicians. "The decree was passed by the Council of Ministers almost a month ago. This delay deprives senior technicians of a career path, nearly a year after it was reviewed by the technical committee," he stated. Mballo Dia Thiam concluded by reaffirming his disagreement with the validation of the ongoing reforms: "We do not agree with the validation of these texts and we are discussing this matter intensely with the President of the Republic. Success is not about indignation, but we reject reforms that are disconnected from the realities on the ground."
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