Patients left to die as doctors strike

THE JUNIOR doctors' strike in protest over poor salaries yesterday could have risked many people's lives at most of the country's public referral hospitals as patients spent the whole day unattended due to shortage of medical practitioners.

Harare Central Hospital's clinical director George Vera said the industrial action had paralysed operations in some departments.

 "The patients are being inconvenienced as we speak. But it's not all members that have gone on strike, some are available," Vera said in attempted to downplay the matter.

At Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, patients complained of spending hours on end in queues without being attended to.

A nurse who declined to be named said service delivery was slow as the majority of junior doctors were on strike.

However, the situation was different at Chitungwiza Central Hospital with CEO Obadiah Moyo saying all his medical staff had reported for duty.

In Bulawayo, the doctors' strike got off to a slow start although they appeared to be on a go-slow with long queues forming in the outpatients department and admissions rooms at Mpilo Central and United Bulawayo Hospitals.

According to NewsDay and Southern Eye, people visiting patients at Mpilo revealed that service was markedly slower, with doctors taking longer to attend to patients.

The junior doctors are demanding that their salaries be reviewed from the current $282 a month to a minimum of $1 200 per month excluding allowances. They are also demanding free accommodation in government-owned flats.

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors' Association secretary-general Farai Makoni confirmed that their members had embarked on industrial action in accordance with the new Constitution saying they will do so until their grievances are addressed.

The cash-strapped Civil Service Commission has been dilly-dallying on the issue with no indications of a redress of the situation.