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Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Doctors and Nurses strikes
Zimbabwe's
health sector faces collapse
Mail &
Guardian (SA)
January 10, 2007
http://mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=295252&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
The doctor at the Parirenyatwa
hospital shakes his head in despair as he issues his diagnosis of
Zimbabwe's health service: "The system has literally collapsed
and we are losing lives unnecessarily."
Once renowned throughout
Southern Africa for its standards of treatment, the collapse of
the health service has mirrored the financial crisis in Zimbabwe.
A seven-year recession
which led to inflation passing the 1 000% mark last year means state
hospitals lack the means to pay for even the most basic drugs such
as anti-inflammatory painkillers and pills to battle hypertension.
"It's so painful
when you have to tell a patient there is nothing more you can do
to help them even though they are in agony," said the doctor
at the Parirenyatwa in Harare, the country's biggest hospital.
"We often resort
to bush medicine where we do trial and error and use combinations
of the few drugs that are available to bring temporary relief to
the patients," he added on condition of anonymity.
The major state hospitals
have no functioning radiotherapy machine and rely on donations from
churches for chemotherapy drugs. Syringes and latex gloves are also
in short supply.
All health centres have
been hit by an exodus of staff including specialist doctors, pharmacists
and nurses to countries such as Australia, Britain and neighbouring
South Africa.
The situation deteriorated
further last week when doctors at state hospitals downed their tools,
the culmination of a long-simmering pay dispute. The strike has
left patients stranded, with nurses and government consultants attending
to emergencies only.
The industrial action
began three weeks ago when junior doctors went on a go-slow demanding
an increase in their salaries from the current Z$56 000 ($224).
They also want the government
to up a car allowance loan from Z$700 000 to Z$2,5-million.
Another doctor working
at Harare Central Hospital said morale was at rock bottom.
"Gone are the days
when you simply stretched your hand and you had all the tools you
need for the job at the click of a finger," he said.
"You are supposed
to smile at patients but the work environment and the conditions
of service are depressing."
A regular slot on television
features "Stories that break the heart" and shows people
suffering from various illnesses that cannot be cured at home, appealing
for funds for treatment abroad.
The cost is particularly
prohibitive in a country reeling under a serious foreign exchange
crunch and only a lucky few get help in time.
One recent episode featured
three-year-old cancer sufferer Dexter Chipunza, sent home from hospital
with one of his eyes protruding and a lump that had blocked his
nostrils.
"The doctors say
there are no drugs for his condition at all state hospitals and
the machines for radiotherapy are down. I am appealing to wellwishers
to help me raise money to take my son to South Africa for urgent
treatment," said his distraught mother Enia.
Dexter died at home three
weeks later as donations were still trickling in.
Doctors say they are
not to blame, insisting they had only embarked on industrial action
as a last resort.
"We are as concerned
as everyone else about patients who are suffering as a result of
the deadlock between us and government," said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa,
president of the Hospital Doctors Association.
"The majority of
us have no cars to attend to emergencies, we can hardly afford basic
groceries. All we are asking for is a salary that will make coming
to work worthwhile.
"The current junior
doctor's salary can only buy a few kilograms of meat and these are
the same grievances we put forward when we went on strike last year."
President Robert Mugabe
conceded last month that the health sector "continues to face
several challenges, which include the shortage of essential drugs
and critical equipment as well as the unending brain drain".
The government
would soon compel medical school graduates to serve in state health
centres for a period equal to the duration of their training, he
said, while working out a package to discourage the migration of
senior medics. - Sapa-AFP
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