Nurses call off strike, return to work It was business as
usual as nurses at Mpilo Central Hospital returned to work yesterday.
Striking nurses yesterday returned to work following a
decision by their representative body, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina),
to give dialogue a chance.
The health workers had declared incapacitation on June 18
but reversed their decision after engagements with the Minister of health and
Child Care, who is also the country’s Vice-President, Cde Constantino Chiwenga.
The development brought relief to patients countrywide who
were facing challenges in accessing basic medical care as some alleged
hospitals were turning them away.
The country’s two major referral hospitals in the southern
region, Mpilo Central Hospital and the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), where a
majority of health care workers had downed tools, hit the ground running and
there was significant increase in activity.
At Gweru Provincial Hospital (GPH) where only 10 out of 300
nurses had joined the industrial action, everyone reported for duty. The nurses
at Mpilo Central Hospital and UBH had joined their counterparts countrywide in
withdrawing their labour on June 18 despite the spike in confirmed Covid-19
cases. However, the strike had been declared illegal by Health Services Board
(HSB), the board, which employs the nurses.
The Chronicle news crew yesterday visited Mpilo Central
Hospital and UBH and officials at the institutions confirmed that nurses were
back at work. The news crew observed nurses attending to patients.
Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer, Dr
Solwayo Ngwenya said although nurses had in the past two weeks been gradually
returning to work, yesterday all of them resumed duty.
“I can confirm that almost 100 percent of our nurses at
Mpilo Central Hospital have returned to work. In fact, in the last two weeks we
have been recording an improvement in terms of numbers averaging between 90
percent to 98 percent and now they are back to 100 percent,” he said.
Dr Ngwenya said they were already in the process of
reopening more services including some wards, which were temporarily closed due
to inadequate nursing staff.
“We had closed some wards due to lack of staff and now that
all nurses are back, we are in the process of reopening them,” he said.
Mpilo Central Hospital has a full complement of about 800
nurses.
UBH acting CEO, Dr Narcisius Dzvanga said all nurses at the
hospital returned to work.
“We have been affected by the nurses’ strike, which had
crippled our services. However, I am glad all our nurses are back at work and
we are now operating normally in all our wards,” he said.
GPH medical superintendent Dr Fabion Mashingaidze said the
30 nurses who had stopped going to work had started reporting for duty. “Most
of our nurses were not on strike, fortunately for us. Out of the 300 nurses we
have about 10 percent who were on strike and have started coming back,” he
said.
Dr Mashingaidze commended staff at GPH saying patients have
never been turned away.
Zina secretary-general Mr Enock Dongo yesterday told the
Chronicle that they agreed to return to work while negotiations with their
employer were still going on. Zina represents more than 15 000 nurses
countrywide. He said they will today hold a tripartite meeting during which the
issue of incapacitation and protective clothing would take centre stage.
“Although we didn’t reach an agreement with Government, we
felt that we should first give our (Health and Child Care) Minister,
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and his Permanent Secretary (Air Commodore
Jasper Chimedza) a chance since they are still new in the ministry. They
requested us to return to work while still negotiating and as courtesy we
agreed as nurses to give them a chance and we are hopeful they will address our
issues,” said Mr Dongo.
“We are giving our minister a chance to start on a fresh
page and look at our concerns, which is why we encouraged our members to return
to work.”
Mr Dongo said although Zina was aware that its members were
incapacitated, he urged them to start reporting for duty and subsidise the
Government by raising bus fare.
“Most of our members do not have the capacity to report for
work, but we have said we are now going back to work. We are happy that today
we were informed that tomorrow (today) there is going to be a meeting between
Zina, HSB and Treasury to discuss our issues with the hope of addressing our
situation,” he said.
Mr Dongo said in light of Covid-19, nurses should not risk
their lives by operating without personal protective equipment (PPEs).
“We regard every person admitted to the hospital as a
Covid-19 patient, which why we are saying nurses should not take any chances by
performing their duties without PPEs,” he said. The new position taken by
nurses is expected to pave the way for the end of the industrial action.
Government has started restructuring the country’s healthcare system and has
since assured health workers that efforts are underway to address their
grievances.
The Health Ministry is being overhauled to ensure
efficiency following the dismissal of VP Chiwenga’ predecessor, Dr Obadiah Moyo
on corruption and criminal abuse office charges.
Vice-President Chiwenga was recently assigned an additional
task of taking charge of the Health Ministry which is under the spotlight
because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is expected that the wide-ranging reforms will transform
the health sector by introducing systems that work in the national interest. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment