Doctors striking in Zimbabwe for pay hikes defied a government order to resume work on Monday and asked the UN and private businesses to help fund their return to the wards.<\/p>\n
The doctors are in the second month of a strike over salaries which have dwindled to less than $100 per month in some cases as a result of galloping inflation.<\/p>\n
They say their pay has lost value by at least 1,500 percent.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) said they have used up their savings by “subsidising the employer” for them to just report for work.<\/p>\n
Negotiations with the government have been deadlocked as the doctors rejected a 60% pay increase and demanded their salaries be pegged to the US dollar.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Obadiah Moyo at the weekend ordered the medics to return to work, warning them with unspecified disciplinary action if they did not comply.<\/p>\n
The government has adopted a ham-fisted response to the strike, now in its 34th day.<\/p>\n
Last month police tried to stop the doctors from marching to parliament, until a court allowed the protest.<\/p>\n
The leader of the doctors’ union Peter Magombeyi was last month abducted by suspected state agents, only to be released five days later after pressure from his colleagues.<\/p>\n
The government tried to block him from travelling to neighbouring South Africa for treatment after local doctors recommended further medical assessment.<\/p>\n
He was only allowed to leave following another court order.<\/p>\n
The striking doctors have appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO), local businesses, churches and NGOs to help raise funding to supplement their wages.<\/p>\n
“Lives are being lost and there is need to urgently raise resources to supplement… the salaries of 1,800 government-employed doctors,” they said.<\/p>\n
Should the UN heed the doctors’ call, it will not be the first time it has supported health personnel in the crisis-ridden country.<\/p>\n
Unicef ran a so-called Health Transition Fund, a multi-donor pooled fund for four years from 2011, paying out allowances to augment medical practitioners’ salaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doctors striking in Zimbabwe for pay hikes defied a government order to resume work on Monday and asked the UN and private businesses to help fund their return to the wards. The doctors are in the second month of a strike over salaries which have dwindled to less than $100 per month in some cases […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[304,380,202],"class_list":{"0":"post-14524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-health-ministry","10":"tag-moyo","11":"tag-striking-doctors"},"yoast_head":"\n