Very few patients are now bothering to go to Zimbabwe’s four main hospitals where patient care has been paralysed by a junior doctors’ strike, state radio reported on Tuesday.
The report said only a few people are now seeking treatment at the hospitals in Harare and the second city of Bulawayo.
Only two casualty doctors were on duty at Harare’s main Parirenyatwa Hospital, said the radio reports.
A strike over poor pay by scores of junior doctors is now into its fifth week with no sign of a real climbdown on the part of President Robert Mugabe’s government or the doctors.
Badly hit by Zimbabwe’s soaring inflation rate, the doctors want a near-hundredfold pay hike, up from the current Z$56 000 per month to Z$5-million.
While the government says it has worked out an attractive package for the doctors, they complain they haven’t actually been told what the package comprises, said the radio report, quoting Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors’ Association.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has urged the doctors to be driven by human conscience to serve the interests of the nation, according to the radio reports. — Sapa-dpa