The dire state of the country’s health delivery system has
prompted nurses to call for a “tools down” on Monday.
NewsDay has gathered that morale among health professionals
was now so low that nurses were on Tuesday forced to notify the Health Service
Board (HSB) of their plans to down tools in protest over poor working
conditions.
“With reference to the above mentioned subject, we wish to
notify you that our members will not be able to turn up for duty starting on
Monday June 20, 2022 until the following conditions are met,” Zimbabwe
Professional Nurses Union president Robert Chiduku wrote.
Chiduku said they were demanding United States dollar
salaries as the local currency continues to weaken while prices of goods and
services skyrocket beyond the reach of many.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo also said
their members were incapacitated to report for duty.
“Yesterday, (Tuesday) we got the shock of our lives to note
that we received an average of $30 000 considering what is happening in the
economy, where prices of goods and services are galloping,” Dongo said.
“These issues should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
We are giving a warning to government that we declare incapacitation with
immediate effect. We will take a position on what action to take with the state
of incapacitation after full consultative meeting with our members.”
Health secretary Air Commodore Jasper Chimedza referred
questions to the ministry spokesperson Donald Mujiri, who also referred NewsDay
to Health Service Board executive director Engelbert Mbengwa.
“The Health Service Board is our employer so the executive
director (Mbengwa) is better placed to respond to the job action issue,” Mujiri
said.
Mbengwa professed ignorance on the matter.
“I am out of Harare and my office is not aware that nurses
want to go on strike,” Mbengwa curtly said
Public Service Commission secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe,
however, said the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) would meet on a
date yet to be advised to discuss the salary concerns.
“It is in that context that constructive discussions on
ways to address movements in the cost of living are conducted. It is expected
that a meeting of the NJNC will be convened soon,” he said.
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights secretary
Norman Matara said the planned nurses’ strike action spelt disaster for the
country’s ailing health delivery system.
“Nurses’ strikes will definitely cause disaster in health
institutions. We have been saying this over and over again that government
needs to take the concerns of its workers seriously. Until those issues are
addressed, we will continue to see such job action,” Matara said.
A memorandum from Harare’s Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals
in possession of the NewsDay directed to principal nursing officer, one Mpande
from one Mukona said there was a crisis at the institution.
The memorandum, dated June 9, 2022, said the public
hospital was facing shortages of surgical sundries such as bandages and razors,
among others.
“Pregnant women who are in need of an operation are being
sent back home to collect materials needed, just imagine, because the hospital
is saying they have shortages of surgical materials,” a sources at the hospital
said.
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals spokesperson Linos Dhire
yesterday told NewsDay that he was on leave before directing questions to
acting spokesperson Sincere Shamu who denied the allegations.
“We have noted the allegations that pregnant women due for
operations at Parirenyatwa are being sent home to collect materials needed for
their surgery. The hospital is making all efforts to make sure all critical
consumables required for operations are available,” Shamu said.
Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital in Mutare is facing
both food and drug challenges.
The hospital’s medical Superintendent Dorcas Masanga Mutede
yesterday refused to comment on the matter saying: “I have no comment, I am
busy at the moment.”
The country’s health sector faces numerous challenges all
linked to under-funding.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director
Itai Rusike said: “The health budget remains grossly inadequate to fund the
critical needs in the health sector within the context of chronic high
inflation.”
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, who doubles as Health
and Child Care minister, once fired striking nurses.
Chiwenga has also introduced the Health Services Amendment
Bill, which seeks to bar health professionals from participating in industrial
action. Newsday
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