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Doctors threaten to quit en masse
ZimOnline
January 26, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=794

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s striking doctors on Thursday threatened to quit and leave the country en masse if the government did not urgently move to end a six-week strike that has paralysed state hospitals.

Hospital Doctors Association (HDA) president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa told ZimOnline that locally trained doctors were in demand in neighbouring countries and beyond and they could leave if the strike dragged on or if the government attempted to use strong-arm tactics against the striking medical practitioners.

"One of the options open to us if the government fires us or refuses to give in to our demands and if this strike continues dragging on would be to leave the country altogether," said Nyamutukwa.

"We have got our certificates from the University of Zimbabwe and any country can take us on the basis of those certificates. It would not be advisable for the government to delay or complicate this matter any further," he added.

State doctors went on strike to pressure the government to improve working conditions and that it hikes salaries by 8 000 percent. Doctors were earning around Z$56 000 per month but the government this week increased salaries to $239 000, an amount the doctors say is still too way below their minimum demand of $5 million a month.

Contacted for comment on the threat by doctors to leave the country if the government did not accede to their salary demands, acting Health Minister Sydney Sekeramayi would only say that the government was still in negotiations with the doctors and hoped to reach an agreement soon.

"It would be premature to talk about anything. We are trying to persuade them to return to work. Our hope is to reach an agreement soon," he said.

At least 350 doctors are on strike and the government would struggle to find replacements if it were to fire or let them resign and leave the country. Zimbabwe is already facing a shortage of doctors and nurses many of who left to seek better paying jobs abroad.

Patients have suffered the most because of the doctors’ strike with reports many were dying of diseases that could otherwise be treated if doctors were at work.

Nurses at various hospitals have since joined the strike leaving patients in the care of young student nurses.

The latest doctors’ strike - coming hardly two months after another paralysing work boycott at the government-owned Mpilo hospital in Bulawayo last November - only highlights the rot in Zimbabwe’s public health delivery system, once among the best in Africa but has virtually crumbled due to under-funding and mismanagement. - ZimOnline

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