DIALOGUE between the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association
(ZHDA) and the Health ministry has not yielded positive results, with the
employer still to make an offer to the striking medical, practitioners.
Speaking to NewsDay, ZHDA treasurer general Tapiwa Mungofa
said the talks so far have not brought anything tangible.
“Talks are ongoing and there is no agreement as yet,”
Mungofa said. Doctors have not been reporting for work for the past 77 days,
but their employer has not heeded their call, but instead sacked 346 for
absenteeism.
Mungofa said they met once last week and are waiting for a
response from the ministry, hopefully this week.
“We only had one meeting last week with the minister and
there was no offer, the agreement was that he is going to take our demands to
relevant authorities and get back to us and the next meeting is this week,” he
said.
In an update given by the association yesterday, doctors
say they were ready to go back to work if, among other demands, the mass laying
off of practitioners stops forthwith. “We expressed our willingness to return
to work immediately upon fulfilment of the following five points: Cessation of
all hostility (hearings, dismissals, salary cuts and evictions),” the doctors
said.
ZHDA is appealing to doctors who have received their
November salaries to share with those who were removed from the payroll. “It’s
two months now without salaries for troops in the trenches.
We call upon those who received their bonuses and November
salaries to contribute to the crowdfunding for (junior residential medical
officers) JRMOS and (senior residential medical officers) SRMOS who did not
receive their November salaries,”Mungofa said.
Contacted for comment, Health Services Board chairperson,
Paulinus Sikosana said, they were not part of the dialogue and were not in a
position to comment.
Health minister Obadiah Moyo and his deputy John Mangwiro
could not be reached for comment. Newsday
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