The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
MEDICAL doctors in Manicaland joined their colleagues in downing tools in a protracted row with the Government over low pay and alleged poor working conditions, leaving patients stranded and without specialist care.
The doctors joined the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association nationwide strike to compel Government to address their concerns.
Government’s plea for the doctors to return to work while it looks into their grievances has fallen on deaf ears.
Though efforts to get a comment from the provincial medical director Dr Patron Mafaune were fruitless as her mobile number was continuously unreachable, medical sources said Mutare Provincial Hospital was the worst affected.
Doctors at the referral hospital were not reporting for duty.
When The Manica Post visited Mutare Provincial Hospital yesterday, the outpatient department was a sorry sight, as patients were left stranded following the industrial action by doctors.
Dozens of people sat on the ground as they waited miserably outside the health facility.
There was not much difference inside the hospital as patients and their families lined the corridors in the hope of seeing medical staff attending to them.
The Manica Post gathered that doctors at other district hospitals such as Rusape General Hospital were only attending to emergencies like maternity and road traffic accidents.
“Here at Rusape doctors did not want to report for duty at all, but we had to persuade them, and they are attending to emergencies only.
“Other cases which are not classified as emergencies are being attended to by nurses.
“The doctors are not working as usual, but attend only to those special cases here and there. From the reports we are getting, Mutare Provincial Hospital is the worst affected because the doctors are not reporting for duty at all.
“The doctors are grieving because things are not well, and apart from allowances, there are no drugs and requisite tools. The way things are pose serious risks to us as health workers,” said a medical practitioner in Rusape.
