DESPERATE patients seeking treatment from public health
institutions across the country have pleaded with junior doctors to end their
impasse with Government over salaries, saying they should find it in their
hearts to assist them.
The Catholic Bishops this week won doctors a 48-hour
moratorium to return to work without re-applying and without questions being
asked and the Higher Life Foundation has offered 2 000 doctors incentive
payments of up to $5 000 a month plus Vaya coupons for transport and a free
smart phone. This is in addition to the
$4 305 in salaries and allowances a month and free accommodation that the
Government offered junior doctors last month. Junior doctors can also benefit from
retention allowances from development partners.
The junior doctors’ leadership appears to want to continue
rejecting all these offers although there is speculation that some of their
members might break ranks, not having been paid for three months since they
first withdrew their labour and having to leave their free accommodation today.
In a statement yesterday, the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’
Association said the 48-hour reprieve would have carried weight if it had been
accompanied by a fresh salary offer from their employer.
The doctors said they are, however, still open to dialogue
but urged the bishops to first consult them on their expectations.
“We appreciate the role played by the Catholic Bishops
which has resulted in the doctors being issued a moratorium, valid for the next
48 hours. Sadly, the moratorium has come without a new offer on the table
having been communicated to us. Should this moratorium lapse without the formal
communication of an offer that is reasonable, it would stand as yet another
gracious privilege that is lost,” read the statement.
The medical practitioners acknowledged the offer from the
HLF but said they would only act on it after they have ironed out their
differences with Government. “It was concluded that in as much as the support
from HLF is welcome, it does not address completely the demands of the doctors
for a salary whose value is preserved despite soaring inflation as well as the
provision of adequate and appropriate tools of trade. It was posited that the
offer from HLF may be reconsidered once the standoff between the ZHDA and its
Employer (HSB) has been resolved.
“This recognises the sincerity of the donor group and its
desire not to interfere with the negotiation process,” reads part of the ZHDA
statement.
In separate interviews, patients at the country’s public
hospitals revealed that some people were dying before they even consult on
their conditions because of the doctors’ absence.
Some patients said they were spending more than a week at
health facilities without being attended to.
Mr Tawanda Goche, a patient who resides out of Harare, was
referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital for further checks on his condition, but had
not had any assistance from yesterday morning to about 5PM. “I arrived at
Parirenyatwa early in the morning and they had said that they would admit me,
but since morning I have not been attended to. I am still waiting and hoping
that I will be attended to, even after being admitted. There is definitely need
for doctors to resume work because people are going to die especially those
involved in accidents,” said Mr Goche.
He said the doctors were being inconsiderate especially
after the efforts by Government to address their working conditions many times.
The Higher Life Foundation (HLF) has offered about 2 000
doctors incentives of up to $5 000 per month for six months while they continue
negotiating with Government, but some doctors have already indicated that they
will reject the support, raising suspicion that the impasse was no longer a
purely labour issue.
“If we had enough funds, we would go to private hospitals
but the situation is bad. We need our doctors back at work so that lives are
saved,” Mr Goche said.
Former deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Edwin
Muguti also said the deadlock must end soon. “People need to be serious and
respect each other. What is currently happening will not solve anything.
Government and doctors must engage for a lasting solution to this challenge,”
he said.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
expressed concern over the prolonged absence of doctors in health institutions.
“For instance, the prolonged absence of health care professionals in the public
sector exposes pregnant women into delivering at home or outside the formal
health delivery system. Such practices are harmful, and have immediate and
long-term negative sequel to both mothers and their babies,” reads part of
their statement.
The junior doctors have turned down Government’s recent
offer for a 100 percent review of on call allowances, which would have seen
them earning about $4 305 a month with effect from October 1, inclusive of an
on call allowance of $2 400.
The doctors are demanding a salary set in US dollars and at
least equal to what they were earning before exchange rates started moving and
with Zimbabwe dollar payments pegged at the interbank rate to guarantee its
value against inflation.
Although some doctors in the private sector are paid
between $6 000 and $8 000 a month, elsewhere in the region, doctors are earning
between US$2 000 and US$3 000 a month.
In addition to the Government’s offer of $4 305, Higher
Life Foundation had offered the junior doctors an extra incentive of at least
$5 000 a month, a smart phone, a Vaya carpool voucher to access the hospital
for up to three trips per day, and free Wi-Fi at major teaching hospitals.
Higher Life also pledged to provide doctors with equipment.
Government had fired 448 doctors for continuously refusing
to report for work but after being engaged by the Catholic bishops on Thursday,
the Executive acceded to the clergy’s plea and gave the doctors a 48-hour
moratorium to return to work.
Both the reprieve and the deadline for applications to
benefit from HLF’s incentives, coincides with the end of the month by which all
the fired doctors staying in Government accommodation are expected to vacate
their flats and houses.
Today, most of the doctors found guilty of absenting
themselves from work for five consecutive days or more without official leave
are expected to leave staff accommodation.
Salaries of those found guilty were also stopped and by end
of November, they will have gone for three months without pay, raising
questions on how the doctors are eking out a living.
Sources say the decision by ZHDA to continue with the
stand-off was likely going to divide the doctors as some desperately need the
free accommodation, the salary and additional incentives from HLF. “The
reprieve will actually give some of them, who have been wanting to go back to
work, an opportunity to do so without being asked any questions and at the same
time apply for the HLF scholarships.
“Remember others are breadwinners and three months without
a salary is just too much no matter how little the salary is,” said a source.
Taking into account all sources of income from Government,
the foundation and development partners, junior doctors could see their
earnings hit $10 000 a month along with their free accommodation.
Some striking doctors are reportedly surviving on locums at
their seniors’ surgeries, which is an anomaly since the law permits only those
in their second year to do some private practice. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment