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Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Doctors and Nurses strikes
Patients
stay away during Zim hospital strike
Mail & Guardian (SA)
January 23, 2007
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=296557
Very few patients
are now bothering to go to Zimbabwe's four main hospitals where
patient care has been paralysed by a junior doctors' strike, state
radio reported on Tuesday.
The report said
only a few people are now seeking treatment at the hospitals in
Harare and the second city of Bulawayo.
Only two casualty
doctors were on duty at Harare's main Parirenyatwa Hospital, said
the radio reports.
A strike over
poor pay by scores of junior doctors is now into its fifth week
with no sign of a real climbdown on the part of President Robert
Mugabe's government or the doctors.
Badly hit by
Zimbabwe's soaring inflation rate, the doctors want a near-hundredfold
pay hike, up from the current Z$56 000 per month to Z$5-million.
While the government
says it has worked out an attractive package for the doctors, they
complain they haven't actually been told what the package comprises,
said the radio report, quoting Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president
of the Hospital Doctors' Association.
Health Minister
David Parirenyatwa has urged the doctors to be driven by human conscience
to serve the interests of the nation, according to the radio reports.
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