GOVERNMENT has set tough measures for doctors intending to leave the country and also ordered the closure of three programmes at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)’s medical school in a move viewed as punishment to specialist health practitioners for demanding personal protective equipment.
Doctors, most of them mulling leaving the country when
lockdown restrictions are lifted, have been on successive job actions for
better salaries in the last 12 months.
According to new requirements viewed as a manoeuvre to
block a possible mass exodus, the doctors wanting to go outside the country
will now be required to pay US$200 upfront for a clearance certificate signed
by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe.
The same clearance cost $1 500, about US$20, at the
beginning of the year.Most doctors earn about $9 000, which is equivalent to
about US$110 using the auction rate. The doctors will also be required to
obtain a “Certificate of Good Standing” signed by three people.
First to sign will be the hospital clinical director,
provincial medical director or medical superintendent, followed by the director
of curative services in the Health ministry, before the application finally
goes to the ministry’s permanent secretary for “approval”.
In the past, only a senior doctor with five years
experience, provincial medical director or medical superintendent they
practised with in the previous six months was supposed to sign.
Yesterday, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also
Health minister, blocked top medicine students from accessing public hospitals
as punishment for demanding better working conditions.
He also forced the UZ to immediately stop studies in three
key programmes at the school of medicine to ensure that the doctors cannot
proceed with their education as part of a cocktail of punitive measures.
In a letter to the UZ dean of the Faculty of Medicine and
Health Services on Wednesday, one Mutongereni said they had received
communication from the Ministry of Health and Child Care to suspend classes.
“Following communication from the Ministry of Health and
Child Care to the effect that registrars enrolled for the University of
Zimbabwe’s Masters of Medicine and Masters of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
programmes are no longer allowed to access public hospitals, the university has
suspended classes for the programmes with immediate effect,” Mutongereni said.
But a letter released by Zimbabwe Association of Doctors
for Human Rights secretary Norman Matara, addressed to the ministry by the
registrars, revealed that the specialist students were being punished for
requesting minimum requirements for their safety as well as that of patients.
“A number of registrars stationed at Parirenyatwa Group of
Hospitals have indicated their willingness to resume clinical services, but are
hoping that minimum requirements for healthcare workers and patient safety are
met as we continue in the pandemic,” the letter read.
“These include the provision of Doppler’s, CTGs
[cardiotocography, a technical means of recording the feotal heartbeat and the
uterine contractions during pregnancy], adequate personal protective equipment
as appropriate for tasks, adequate nursing staff levels for theatres and the
wards, two functional theatres at MMH at any given day and time including
weekends, the ready availability of consultants to teach and assist, a
commitment to resumption of elective surgeries and outpatient clinics and
adequate junior levels.”
The specialist students reiterated that the hospital and
the university must treat them as qualified doctors and post-graduate students
and not mere cheap labour.
“It is our expectations that both the hospital and the
university treats us as qualified doctors and post-graduate students and not
mere cheap labour providers. Our salaries amount to nothing and providing
services on a voluntary basis like this, we hope will be accorded some level of
kindness,” they wrote.
The doctors also demanded that they be provided with fuel,
airtime, data allowances and meals for doctors on call.
Contacted for a comment, Health and Child Care permanent
secretary Jasper Chimedza asked NewsDay to send the questions on his mobile
phone, but had not responded by the time of going to print last night.
The banning of specialist training has been described as a
command and militaristic approach to matters of public health.
Chiwenga, his deputy John Mangwiro and Chimedza are all
former military men and have been accused of using their military tactics to
run the ministry.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week boasted that he
appointed Chiwenga as Health minister to instil discipline in the ministry.
Newsday
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