The month-long strike by doctors at public hospitals is taking its toll on patients as more people are being turned away without getting any treatment.
Junior doctors from across the country went on strike on
September 3 after the government offered them a measly 60% salary increment.
The health practitioners, who early this year embarked on
another crippling job boycott, also want the government to ensure the provision
of equipment and medicines at public hospitals where standards have plummeted
over the years.
Senior doctors joined the strike last Thursday citing
“appalling and disgraceful conditions” at public hospitals.
At Parirenyatwa Hospital, Zimbabwe’s largest referral
hospital, a teary 84-year-old Chistine Mahakwa feared she would die if she was
not attended to by a doctor urgently.
She was among tens of people milling around the hospital
last week after they were turned away because there were no doctors on duty.
Mahakwa, whose tummy was swollen, said she had no idea what
was afflicting her and was in great pain.
“I am afraid to eat anymore because I am not able to
relieve myself,” she said.
“I feel so much pain and I have spent the whole day lying
down here.
“Soon others will be attending to their fields when the
rains come, but I do not think I will live to see the next harvest.”
A young mother, who only identified herself as Mirriam,
said her 10-year-old son had been struggling to get treatment for almost a
month.
She said the boy has been suffering from severe bouts of
headaches and dizziness, but had not received any form of treatment because
doctors were yet to diagnose his condition.
“Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming
and saying he is hearing voices,” Miriam said. “Maybe someone bewitched him.”
The situation was the same at Chitungwiza Central Hospital
where only critical cases were being handled by the few doctors at work.
“We have been told to go back home because they consider our
conditions not to be life-threatening, but what if I die?” said an elderly
woman as she left the outpatients department.
Alex Gasasira, the World Health Organisation country
director in Zimbabwe, said vulnerable people, were being turned away from hospitals.
“We hear that many patients are being turned away, some of
them with very serious conditions,” he told the Voice of America.
“So we are concerned that the most vulnerable people, who
are in most need of services, would not be able to access the services that
they would require if their doctors keep being away from work. So, that is a
big concern for us.
“So that is why we would hope that this could be resolved
and they returned to work soonest.”
Health and Child Care minister Obadiah Moyo yesterday
ordered the striking doctors to return to work tomorrow morning or face
disciplinary action.
Moyo said the government had tried its best to address the
doctors’ grievances and it was “appalled that doctors have walked out from the
negotiating table and from their patients who are in dire need of their care”.
Senior doctors, however, said the government had ignored
their grievances for far too long. They said Zimbabwean doctors were poorly
paid compared to their regional counterparts.
For instance, senior doctors in South Africa get a basic
salary of between 80 000 rand and 120 000 rand a month, in Zimbabwe they get an
average of $500, the doctors said.
Consultants receive a basic salary of $1 010.
“No effort has been taken to address any of our concerns,
giving the impression that there is no interest on the part of the government
to address those concerns,” the Senior Hospital Doctors’ Association said in a
letter addressed to the Health and Child Care ministry, which was copied to the
Health Services Board (HSB).
Since junior doctors went on strike, nurses had been
holding fort, but they also work between two to three days a work because they
do not have transport money.
Senior doctors said the situation had seen them work under
a lot of pressure.
“It is for this reason that we scaled down our operations
to the provision of only emergency hospital services,” the association added.
HSB chairperson Paulinas Sikhosana said the body was aware
of doctors’ grievances and believes that they could be addressed through
dialogue.
“The issue of the state of the hospitals affects the work
environment and motivation and ability of health workers to perform their
professional tasks effectively,” he said.
“The HSB is aware of the regional remuneration framework
for health workers in neighbouring countries.
“We have undertaken the necessary surveys in order to try
and benchmark our salaries to these to the extent that government can afford
the salary bill.”
Sikhosana urged senior doctors to use available platforms
to negotiate with the government for better working conditions.
“In terms of negotiations the Health Apex is the forum
where negotiations between the HSB as the employer and health workers take place,”
he said.
“Senior doctors have a seat reserved for them at the table.
It would, however, seem that they do not use it preferring instead to cede it
to the junior doctors.”
Gasasira said the problems facing health sector workers
were universal among employees in Zimbabwe who are reeling from a collapsing
economy.
“As you may know, the complaints of the doctors are
factored around the economy, the current economic condition of the country,
which is really the higher level than just the health sector,” he added.
“Their main complaints, as you may know, are around the
payments, the conditions of service.
“So these factors are affecting many sectors, not just
that, in fact all aspects of life.”
The International Monetary Fund put Zimbabwe’s annual
inflation rate at 300% for August following a spike in prices that followed the
rolling-out of currency reforms.
In June, Zimbabwe ended a decade of dollarisation and
adopted a local currency, which has been losing value against the United States
dollar rapidly.
The local currency, which was at 1:1 against the US dollar
in January, has plunged to 1:16 against the greenback.
Civil servants, including nurses and doctors, have been hit
by the skyrocketing prices as the government has not been reviewing their
salaries regularly.
While the rest of the civil service has not resorted to
strikes yet, doctors have been on a collision course with the government since
late last year as they demanded better living conditions.
In April last year, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga
ordered the dismissal of all striking public hospital nurses and ordered the
recruitment of unemployed nurses. Retired nurses were also recalled to cover
the gap.
Zimbabwe’s health delivery system, once the envy of many in
Africa, has been collapsing over the years due to poor funding and a brain
drain that has been blamed on poor remuneration of critical staff. Standard
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