Doctors demoralized and frustrated(08-02-07)

HARARE – As the doctors’ strike entered its seventh week on Monday, questions are beginning to be asked whether it is ethically correct for the health professionals to embark on such prolonged industrial action.
Striking doctors who spoke to The Zimbabwean were in concert that it was ethically wrong for them to engage in industrial action, but were quick to point out that the authorities were also ethically bound to ensure that doctors are well paid and hence do not go on strike.
The striking junior doctors are arguing their salaries, at Z$56,000 are a ” sick joke” and are demanding a basic salary of $5 million plus other perks.
Government on its part says doctors are asking for a “black market salary.” The stand off has resulted in unnecessary deaths in the country’s health institutions, most of which could have been avoided.
Dr Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, the president of the Hospital Doctors Association said: “Our state hospitals are in ruin and working in them is a gloomy experience. Everyday doctors face the realistic chance of accidental infection with the HIV at work. Our hospitals constantly run out of gloves, antiseptics, needle bins and protective clothing. Accidental needle pricks are a reality doctors face. And risking all of this for a paltry $56,000?”
Dr Nyamutukwa said it was also disturbing that the hospitals were short of prophylactic antiretroviral drugs at a time so many people needed them.
“So our underpaid, traumatised young doctors go through life trying to dodge HIV infection both at work and in their own private lives! How are doctors supposed to cope with all this and then struggle with their poor salaries and the daily routine of shortages in the black market economy,” he said.
Despite being ready and willing to negotiate, the doctors have been ignored or intimidated by the authorities, added the doctors leader.
“There have rarely been negotiations with the Health Services Board to preempt strikes. If the authorities use the same logic that allowed them to conclude that the cabinet deserved salary adjustment earlier in the year, then why not let the same laws of logic hold true for its downtrodden doctors?”