via Doctors, government set for showdown over allowances – NewsDay Zimbabwe January 7, 2015
GOVERNMENT has been urged to improve the salaries and working conditions of doctors in 2015 to stem the continuing flight of specialists.
President of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association (ZHDA) Dr Fortune Nyasha Nyamande said the government, through the Health Services Board (HSB), should immediately come up with a reasonable remuneration package for health workers or risk further losing experienced doctors and other health personnel such as nurses.
He also said doctors were ready to confront the HSB and the parent ministry over their allowances.
“In January 2015 doctors are ready to put the final nail on the coffin of the Health Services Board and the embattled ministry should there be any attempt to scuttle the disbursement of the much-awaited rectified allowances,” Nyamande said.
“This will definitely mark a turning point as short, sharp and targeted programmes of action shall be embarked on should the HSB renege on its pledges (to improve and award them).”
Last year, doctors went on strike over poor remuneration with their basic pay pegged at a paltry $283 per month.
Nyamande reiterated the need for an immediate revised policy framework for the health sector, overhaul of the composition and mandate of the HSB to complement the already existing solid primary health care system and competent health personnel.
Nyamande hailed President Robert Mugabe for firing former Health and Child Care deputy minister Paul Chimedza after he labelled doctors as “a bunch of drunkards and smokers”.
“He (Chimedza) belongs to the dustbins of history and indeed history shall also judge him harshly for such utterances demeaning his colleagues and the profession. The ZHDA has since disowned him as a former member of the association,” Nyamande said.
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