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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Doctors and Nurses strikes
Senior doctors join the strike
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
January
10, 2007
Read also: ZADHR
statement on junior doctors' strike
Read also: Health
sector halts as junior doctors strike
The situation at the
country's major hospitals has become critical, as senior doctors,
(consultants) have joined the three week long industrial action.
The consultants have downed tools stating that they needed the demands
by junior staff to be met. Of the 350 doctors at Parirenyatwa Hospital
only 11 reported for work today.
The striking doctors'
demands are justified and should be met. What the government and
the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare should put into consideration
is the service delivered by these people who have tried to cope
under difficult circumstances. The country is badly hit by the exodus
of doctors and these junior medical practitioners had to put in
extra hours to serve patients. On a normal day they work for more
than 12 hours only to be slapped by a humiliating $56 000 at the
end of each month.
The Crisis Coalition
Information team caught up with the President of The Hospital Doctors
Association,(HDA) Dr. Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa who indicated that talks
between the Minister of Health Dr. D. Parirenyatwa, the Health Service
Board and the senior doctors referred to as Resident Medical Officers
(SRMOs) were in progress. He was quick to point out that all efforts
by the junior doctors had yielded nothing but threats from the minister
and state operatives. The doctor wrote to the minister three weeks
before the industrial action but the minister did not respond. He
had to wait for the doctors to go on a strike only to come to the
table with threats of imprisonment.
The junior doctors have
in turn chosen not to talk to the minister because what they are
bargaining for is reasonable remuneration for their services. The
senior doctors are negotiating for the junior doctors since their
absence from hospitals implies that the consultants report to the
duties of the junior doctors, a development which the senior doctors
are not prepared to take as it undermines their consultancy duties.
He went on to state that the joining of the senior doctors in the
strike is a sign of solidarity in fighting for a common cause.
Crisis Coalition calls
on the government to urgently address the situation and avoid what
transpired in 2003 when the strike by doctors was unnecessarily
prolonged for more than three months. The situation is desperate
enough and needs the relevant Ministry to act as speedily as possible.
Visit the Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition fact
sheet
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