Doctors strike enters day 21 Medical practitioners refute ministry meeting reports

DOCTORS yesterday dismissed a statement from the Ministry of Health and Child Care that an agreement had been reached to end their strike which spills into day 21 today.

In a statement yesterday, Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association (ZHDA) denied meeting with the Ministry or agreeing on allowances as reported.

“We would like to set the record straight that what was announced by the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa on state TV in the evening of 19th March, 2018 is totally untrue,” read the statement.

Doctors say no agreement has been reached and that Zimbabwean Government hospital doctors are still on strike.

“We as the ZHDA have been waiting patiently for the Minister and his team to come to the negotiating table so that doctors can return to work and avoidable mortality and morbidity can be mitigated,” read the statement.

According to ZHDA, nothing has materialised and no tangible effort has been made to show commitment to addressing doctors’ issues.

“How can the Minister say a resolution has been found when none of the issues that led to the strike have been addressed? Even if doctors were to return to work, they would be equally culpable of hoodwinking the population into believing that the hospitals are now fully operational,” the statement said.

Doctors said there are still no enough drugs in the hospitals, hence no need for them to return to work to stare at patients and watch as the suffering and dying continue.

Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa, and Health Service Board chair Dr Lovemore Mbengeranwa could not be reached for comments.

However, in a Press statement yesterday, the Ministry said Government had reviewed allowances for the health sector and established a vehicle loan scheme.

“We appreciate continued service provision under difficult circumstances by all health workers. We therefore expect all doctors who have withdrawn their services to report for duty with immediate effect,” read the statement.

“On-call allowances have been reviewed upwards by 50 percent and locum payment of all outstanding locum claims commenced in February 2018.”

“A vehicle loan scheme for all health workers has been established and furthermore, Government in December 2017 disbursed $22 million from the Health Levy Fund to support the procurement of medicines, hospital sundries and equipment.

“Government continues to accord the health sector priority status in foreign currency allocations for the procurement of medicines, medical sundries and equipment.”

Doctors downed tools on March 1 after petitioning Government to address their issues which include the payment of locum allowances and lifting of the recruitment freeze.—@thamamoe