Inclusive government should look into the plight of doctors

There is an urgent need for the government to avert this strike as it comes when the country is still recovering from a serious outbreak of cholera, which saw nearly 100 000 people being treated from the disease, which also killed another 4 000 people.

Although doctors are at the centre of the health recovery process and any strike action is likely to have a negative effect, the MDC calls on the government to give a living wage considering the amount of work and sacrifice they put in saving the lives of the people.

The MDC fully understands and supports the cause of the doctors and other civil servants.

We urge the government through the Health Services Board, which is involved in the recruitment and welfare of doctors, to look into the plight of the doctors before the strike spreads to other government district hospitals.

Swift action is needed considering that the strike by the doctors comes exactly a year after the first national cholera outbreak was recorded in Harare last August.

The MDC notes that problems in the financing of health and health services are evident throughout the sector and therefore calls on the inclusive government to put in place measures to prioritise issues of health, which is a basic human right.

There is need for increased finances and health-care resources for both drugs and staff.

The MDC is a party of excellence and we believe in, and take serious cognisance of, the importance of health and its centrality to national development, noting that no prospects for development will be realised if the population suffers from ill health, if visitors and investors are not assured of access to quality health care.

The MDC urges the government to ensure the realisation of the peoples right to health, as enshrined in the Constitution, by fulfilling, progressively, the governments obligation to ensure accessible, affordable, acceptable quality health services.