Zim doctors strike over pay
2007-12-30 16:27
Harare - Zimbabwe's state-employed junior doctors and nurses are on strike for higher pay, putting further strain on the country's crumbling public healthcare facilities.
Doctors and nurses had staged a series of strikes in recent years as their salaries had been steadily eroded by the world's highest inflation rate - currently officially running about 8 000% in Zimbabwe.
Thousands more continue to abandon the country in search of better-paid jobs in South Africa, Britain and Australia, hitting a sector burdened by shortages of drugs and the effects of HIV/Aids.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said on Sunday that the government was negotiating with the doctors and nurses to return to work.
Parirenyatwa said: "We are talking to them as we have always done through the Health Services Board and we hope to reach some agreement soon."
Students 'staffing govt hospitals'
Doctors earn Z$60m a month ($2 000 at the official rate, but $30 on the widely used parallel market) and nurses half that amount.
Student and army doctors and nurses were staffing government hospitals while the strike continued.
President Robert Mugabe's government had barred health workers, and those from other essential services, from striking but doctors and nurses had often defied the directive.
Representatives of doctors and nurses were not immediately available for comment, but some patients were being turned away early on Sunday at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the country's largest referral medical centre.
Some student nurses said the strike had started on Christmas Day and that they were only tending to serious cases.
Martha Magaya, who had brought her 7-year-old son with a cold, said: "I have been told to try again in the New Year. There are no doctors. Should my son die because people are arguing over pay?"
Staff at private clinics - which were more expensive - had not joined the strike, but most Zimbabweans received medical care through cheaper state hospitals and clinics.
Economic analysts had warned that Zimbabwe was likely to see more strikes in 2008 by dissatisfied workers grappling with an economic recession that was marked by shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel, and rising unemployment.