Diba’s difficult birth sharpens calls to strengthen Senegal’s public hospitals
A trainee nurse’s account of crowded conditions in a Dakar hospital comes amid strikes and union demands for more staff, better employment conditions and investment in health facilities.
Awa Diba went into labour 24 hours before health workers in Senegal were due to walk out. She spent 24 hours in a crowded Dakar hospital room with four other women, describing intermittent electricity, a broken fan and uneven access to air conditioning. She left with a healthy daughter.
Diba, a trainee nurse, said she witnessed distressed patients and was shocked by conditions inside the hospital. The facility was not named, and her account reflects her own experience.
Doctors, pharmacists and dental surgeons staged strikes on 16 and 17 September, following a 48-hour stoppage the previous week. Emergency care continued during the stoppages, while routine medical services were disrupted.
The medical union SAMES is seeking more recruitment, improved career and pension conditions, and investment in hospitals and equipment, particularly outside Dakar. The union says its demands date back to 2023.
Senegal had 5,236 registered doctors at the end of 2024, including 4,407 working in the public sector, according to figures provided by the National Medical Council’s president. SAMES member Marc Manga has argued staffing numbers alone do not address shortages of equipment or the distances patients travel for diagnosis.
Diba plans to specialise in haematology and says she does not want her daughter to face similar conditions.
