DRC promises docs more money
2008-01-16 13:30
Kinshasa - Doctors at public hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital, on strike since the beginning of the week, were to return to work on Wednesday after the government promised to improve their salaries, said a union official.
The two sides reached the deal after lengthy negotiations on Tuesday, said Mankoy Badjoky, national executive secretary of the Synamed doctors' union.
The government agreed to immediately release 500 million Congolese francs (about $1m) to cover danger pay that doctors had been seeking for years, he said.
It also pledged to find two billion francs so that doctors' salaries could be increased in the coming months, he added.
Many patients were forced out of the main general hospital in the teeming capital of the DRC on Monday after the striking doctors refused to provide even minimum care.
They had accused the government of turning a deaf ear to their concerns.
- AFP