Striking medical interns in Zimbabwe have defied a directive to return to work while their grievances are being examined, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Its website said the junior doctors had vowed to return only if authorities met their demands that included a 700% pay increase. They also wanted substantial loans to buy vehicles suitable for the rural terrain and allowances commensurate with their work.
The impasse had left patients stranded with the remaining staff at hospitals only attending to emergency cases. The striking doctors were mostly stationed at Parirenyatwa and Harare hospitals and downed scalpels last Tuesday in protest against their deployment to district hospitals.
On Monday, the government offered the interns furnished accommodation and a district allowance if they agreed to go to the rural districts. But the doctors said this was insufficient.
Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa urged the doctors to return to work while a solution to the deadlock was being worked out.
He said the doctors should look upon their tour of duty in the districts as a way of giving something back to the community that trained them.
The paper said only emergency cases were being attended to at the Parirenyatwa and Harare hospitals on Monday.
At least 250 Zimbabwean medical interns were on strike by Monday.
”The strike started off slowly on Thursday last week, but now everyone has joined in,” said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors Association. – Sapa