News / National
Discrimination against doctors from other professionals causes problems - Chief Charumbira
28 Mar 2018 at 12:18hrs | Views
Chief Fortune Charumbira has said failure by the government to put the doctors at par in terms of salaries and allowances and benefits has triggered the end less strikes.
"Whatever the doctors are saying, generally is for the progress and development of the country, however, we are facing a problem in that many people are dying because of illnesses. The doctors would want to enjoy their privileges. When we talk of a resident doctor, the one provided with accommodation - the crisis that we have is the public sector job creation and job structure. You find that these doctors, compare themselves with other people in the civil service. I will give an example, we were at school with the magistrates, the training that they had, to compare the doctor and the lawyer, there are many differences. When you look at the benefits of the magistrates, they are given very beautiful cars, the Ford Rangers, the four wheel drive and other benefits. The doctor, despite his training, does not have such benefits," he said.
"I was a student leader at the university that time and I compare myself with what is happening in the country. This is the reason why we have these strikes and industrial action because people are comparing. I am calling upon the public service and saying that as long as I am a doctor, earning some $500, I will not mind if I know I am deserving what it means. The problem we are facing at the moment is doctors are earning far less than what is expected of them. What is the real salary of the workers? Let us not talk of the other allowances that they have. We have a problem with our Treasury because when you go to Treasury, you want to buy whatever you want, but Treasury will only turn down your request. We request you as members of Cabinet to talk to Treasury and tell them that when people are coming to Treasury asking for their budgets, I believe there is no set down rule in allocation of funds but they simply turn that down."
He said when they talk about job evaluation, Treasury turns them down.
"This is a human resources department, not simply Treasury. Let me wind my speech by talking about the industrial action that has been taken. Whenever there is a strike, we have people who try and solve the situation. We believe these go between should assist in shelving this industrial action. We are saying, if you have problems in talking to the workers that are on industrial action, please you may also invite us as traditional leaders. We can talk to them and they will understand. When we have intervened and made resolutions, please follow up on those resolutions because at the moment, people are in problems. You only need people who are very strong, medical aid societies supporting them but other clinics and hospitals like the West End and the Avenues; people have problems in accessing them. We need to convince these doctors and when we have made resolutions, we tell them and implement that. What we need is someone to go between, we are going to do something about these things," he said.
"Whatever the doctors are saying, generally is for the progress and development of the country, however, we are facing a problem in that many people are dying because of illnesses. The doctors would want to enjoy their privileges. When we talk of a resident doctor, the one provided with accommodation - the crisis that we have is the public sector job creation and job structure. You find that these doctors, compare themselves with other people in the civil service. I will give an example, we were at school with the magistrates, the training that they had, to compare the doctor and the lawyer, there are many differences. When you look at the benefits of the magistrates, they are given very beautiful cars, the Ford Rangers, the four wheel drive and other benefits. The doctor, despite his training, does not have such benefits," he said.
He said when they talk about job evaluation, Treasury turns them down.
"This is a human resources department, not simply Treasury. Let me wind my speech by talking about the industrial action that has been taken. Whenever there is a strike, we have people who try and solve the situation. We believe these go between should assist in shelving this industrial action. We are saying, if you have problems in talking to the workers that are on industrial action, please you may also invite us as traditional leaders. We can talk to them and they will understand. When we have intervened and made resolutions, please follow up on those resolutions because at the moment, people are in problems. You only need people who are very strong, medical aid societies supporting them but other clinics and hospitals like the West End and the Avenues; people have problems in accessing them. We need to convince these doctors and when we have made resolutions, we tell them and implement that. What we need is someone to go between, we are going to do something about these things," he said.
Source - Byo24News
