Source: Govt ‘punishes’ strike doctors – DailyNews Live
Bridget Mananavire 8 March 2017
HARARE – Government has imposed three more months of internship for junior
doctors who were on strike for the past three weeks.
In a March 6, 2017 letter to all hospital chief executives, Health
ministry secretary Gerald Gwinji said all doctors who were away for 14
days-plus will have to do three more months of internship before they
qualify to be moved to a district hospital for their final year of
training.
This is despite an agreement not to take disciplinary action against the
doctors that was signed by the Health Bipartite Negotiating Panel.
Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) president Edgar Munatsi
yesterday declined to comment on the government’s latest shock move.
In the letter, copied to Health minister David Parirenyatwa, his deputy
Aldrin Musiiwa, Health Services Board (HSB) chair Lovemore Mbengeranwa and
others, Gwinji claimed the internship extension was in line with training
rules and regulations.
“Junior doctors who were away from training for a period of 14 days and
above will be required to repeat the rotations for three months with
effect from March 6 to end May 2017,” he said.
“This is in compliance with the rules and regulations of training as
issued by the University of Zimbabwe’s College of Health Sciences (UZ-CHS)
and the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ).”
Rotations are when doctors get to work in different medical speciality
areas on a rotational basis.
The doctors were supposed to have finished their internship on February 28
and then move to district hospitals for a year or remain at central
hospitals for two months before they get open practice certificates.
Doctors have been demanding that government release open practice
certificates after completion of internship, as it could not accommodate
the doctors for further training at the country’s health institutions.
Government then offered 250 posts for the doctors, which remain
inadequate, according to the doctor’s association.
Junior doctors went on strike on February 15 and they have since resumed
work with effect from March 6 following agreement reached at the Health
Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel on March 3.
“Communication on issues agreed on will be shared once the relevant
authorities have been received from the board and Treasury,” Gwinji said.
“One of the agreements was that the members who withdrew their labour will
forfeit vacation leave days in lieu of days not worked by the principle of
no-work no-pay. All health workers are expected to clock-in for an audit
trail in the payment of health worker retention allowance.”
Gwinji said that doctors who qualified with a bachelor’s degree in
Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) in 2017 would be deployed to commence
internship with effect from April 1, 2017.
COMMENTS
No surprises. We all know this how Mugabe’s government operates. Their modus operandi is always such that more than 90% of the times they indicate right they will be intending to turn left. That’s in Mugabe’s DNA & apparently he has contagiously propagated the deceitful trait across his party & government. In fact, his bootlickers have no choice except make that they display the symptoms of that particular disease becoz that is the only way one can sit with Mugabe at the same table for long. Otherwise they get fired if they show resistance to the Gushungo disease.
Something of very similar nature is surely going to happen to rest of the civil servants who were promised their 2016 bonuses a few days ago. Watch space! These zanu pf never fulfil any promise towards a positive goal. The only promises fulfil are those of killing, torturing & raping people. Yes, if they say they will kill you, rape you or your wife, etc. That one they will do unless you take strong preventive measures – just as one E. Mawarire had to relocate his family to some far & safe place.
It is going to take some time for the Zanu Bonkers Association to realise that a doctor is a person who gives his life to the people. A doctor is the very opposite of the Zanu Bonkers’ profile. Zanu Bonkers think they are so clever that they can just keep Bonking and that this gives them the very right to take lives. Just as the Fifth Brigade were taking 20 000 lives – so there were doctors in the area trying save the lives of the people that the Fifth Brigade has beaten to within an inch of their lives. A Zanu Bonker and a Doctor are exact opposites. It is really amazing that the EU and the UN just fiddle along blindly with the Zanu Bonkers Club and let them carry on as they please. Of course young Scoonsie thinks it is really cool to hang out with the Zanu Bonkers Club. Perhaps there is a fashionable trend in Europe these days for so called academics to hang out with Zanu Bonkers?