FULL TEXT: Govt Should Urgently Address Incapacitated Doctors' Concerns - MDC

Zimbabwe’s healthcare crisis in intensive care as wheels fall off!

The rabid response of the government to a pretty legitimate doctors’ industrial action defies all reason. Over 450 lower and middle-level doctors have so far been dismissed from service, and this is almost all of them.

This has rather left the consultants with the arduous task of clerking patients as they enter casualty or any of the clinics, doing initial assessments and investigations, admitting patients, staying in the wards to monitor patients, doing blood and lumbar punctures! And all other things are done by the JRMOs (Junior Resident Medical Officers) and their immediate superiors.

Sadly, there aren’t enough consultants. With a total of about 1900 registered doctors in the country, and many of these work in the private sector and NGOs, we already don’t have enough doctors in the public sector, and any further erosion of these numbers is just but pure arrogance.

Unfortunately, fatigue has taken over the consultants as the government has no insight into the gravity of the situation at all and has been pursuing counter-productive measures. The consultants have now downed tools. The wheels have completely fallen off, yet the government continue to be seized with its command and control approach, oblivious of the unfolding catastrophe and all the looming dangers.

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Now we learn that 58 or more consultants have been summoned for a disciplinary hearing.
But what brought us here?

Firstly, the health care workers tolerated abuse by the government for too long. Medical practitioners and citizens should not have tolerated such abuse. A stitch in time always saves nine.

Secondly, Zimbabweans should wake up from the slumber and fallacy that the crisis only belongs to doctors. This is a national crisis that requires a collective and holistic approach. Doctors have done their bit by showing unwavering courage in the face of unmasked brutality. It is now every citizen’s duty to defend their constitutional right to healthcare.

It is important for Mr Mnangagwa’s government to note that doctors are employable elsewhere, and may soon be leaving in their numbers, against their wish of cause. It those that remain who will have to make do with medieval-type medical interventions, the kind the government is now promoting and rewarding.

The $80 million being wasted on POLAD would have gone a long way in solving the current health crisis bedevilling our nation. It is our considered view that certain expenditures be shelved for the good of the health sector. It’s a matter of priorities. How much is a life worth to the government of Zimbabwe?

It is unfortunate that the nation has begun to see the results of this madness: increased maternal and neonatal mortality, an increase in diseases we thought were now under control, like neonatal tetanus, cerebral palsy, an upsurge in obstetric fistulae, a lowering of life expectancy and decimation of the working class.

What is the way forward?

The government must come back to its senses and re-engage all fired doctors back to the civil service without conditionalities or loss of benefits. It is futile to try to negotiate with people who are no longer your employees. You have no leverage, Mr Government.

The government must agree on a step-wise approach to improving the salaries and allowances of doctors for the foreseeable future. This cannot be a one day exercise, but one mutually agreed upon, signed by both parties and adhered to religiously.

The other cause of incapacitation continues to be antiquated hospital equipment, dilapidated infrastructure and lack of daily consumables. It is sad to note that doctors and nurses are washing bandages for reuse.

We, therefore, urge the government to seriously consider upgrading infrastructure and retooling the hospitals, as was the case during the inclusive government.

We implore this government to start smelling the coffee and act right. The window of opportunity is dwindling fast. I wish to advise the “health services board” to be professional and impartial and stop pandering to the whims of politicians.

Dr H Madzorera
Secretary for Health and Child Welfare
Movement for Democratic Change