Doctors at provincial and district hospitals did not join their Harare and Bulawayo counterparts in the ongoing doctors’ strike. The doctors are afraid of being targeted for victimisation and state security agents.
The doctors have been on strike for three weeks now, demanding better working conditions. At Marondera Provincial Hospital, junior doctors were going to work as usual. Two doctors who spoke to NewZimbabwe said
Although we would like to join the strike, in Marondera we don’t have the luxury like our colleagues in Harare or Bulawayo.
We don’t feel it’s safe for us to engage in such acts as we fear reprisals from State security agents and the ruling party functionaries.
We also stay at the hospital and we noticed some strange people walking around our residences,” he said.
Although the visits are no longer frequent, I suspect the people coming to the hospital are State security agents.
We, therefore, realised that it was not safe to embark on the industrial action called by our colleagues although we are also demanding better salaries.
The government should not ignore the concerns raised by the doctors.
At this hospital, we are reporting for work but it’s painful to work under such deplorable conditions.
We have run out of most medicine that we prescribe to the patients and it hurts to see a patient dying because there is no medication.
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