THE doctors’ strike entered its third day yesterday, with the medical practitioners and the doctors talking at each other, but not to each other, further exacerbating the stalemate.
Source: Govt, doctors talking at each other, and not to each other – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 18, 2017
Comment: NewsDay Editor
Doctors have legitimate concerns and it was ill-advised for Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals to threaten the striking medical professionals with firing, as this will add fuel to an already raging fire.
Issuing threats over strikes is an archaic method of dealing with disagreements and the government ought to push for more engagement and accommodation.
The government has failed to meet its end of the bargain regarding on-call allowances and employment of doctors after they finish their internships.
The so-called unfreezing of some posts by Health minister David Parirenyatwa is piecemeal and does not solve the problem, as it will continue to persist.
The government is negotiating from a position of weakness and should not be in any position to issue any threats whatsoever.
What hospitals and the government should be doing is pleading with doctors and fulfilling promises they made several years ago, instead of trying to be a bully.
If the government cannot meet the doctors’ demands, it should explain this and state the steps it will take to address this anomaly.
The doctors have a right to strike after following certain procedures and the government’s response is to find a way of averting the job action and ensure that patients throughout the country are taken care of.
The doctor’s strike is testament to government’s failure to prioritise in allocating revenue.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Abuja Declaration, where it committed it would allocate 15% of the National Budget to health.
So far, the government has literally failed to put its money where its mouth is and is allocating as little as 6% to health, which means the health sector is chronically underfunded and faces frequent drugs shortages.
A freeze on hiring staff has not helped matters either.
Bizarrely, the military and the police continue to recruit, yet the critical Health ministry is not allowed to do so.
This means doctors and nurses are often understaffed an overworked and this could have been one of the causal factors leading to the industrial action.
The government needs to get its priorities in order and apportion the health sector the priority it deserves.
There is need to find a solution to the doctors’ strike instead of issuing unhelpful threats.
We believe the doctors are reasonable, and if the government is open to honest dialogue, they will be willing to engage.
Threats will only push them away and make a bad situation worse.
COMMENTS