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Few patients visit Zim hospitals
23/01/2007 12:01 - (SA)
Harare - Very few patients are now bothering to go to Zimbabwe's four main hospitals, where patient care had been paralysed by a junior doctors' strike, said reports on Tuesday.
The report said only a few people were now seeking treatment at the hospitals in Harare and the second city of Bulawayo.
Only two casualty doctors were on duty at Harare's main Parirenyatwa Hospital, said the reports.
A strike over poor pay by scores of junior doctors was now into its fifth week with no sign of a real climbdown on the part of President Robert Mugabe's government or the doctors.
Badly hit by Zimbabwe's soaring inflation rate, the doctors wanted a near-hundredfold pay hike, up from the current Z$56 000 a month to Z$5m.
The reports quoted Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors Association, as saying that while the government said it had worked out an attractive package for the doctors, they complained that they haven't actually been told what the package comprised.
According to reports, health minister David Parirenyatwa had urged the doctors to be driven by human conscience to serve the interests of the nation.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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