‘War situation’ as nurses and doctors strike continues
By Tererai Karimakwenda
May 30, 2007

Patients continued to be turned away at Zimbabwe’s major hospitals on Monday as the strike action by junior doctors and nurses continued. The situation has become so critical the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described the health delivery system as being comparable to "a war situation." Speaking at a one-day workshop on human rights at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, the ICRC communication delegate for Southern Africa, Sebastian Brack said the crisis could no longer be ignored if lives were to be saved. The strike is over poor salaries and better working conditions.

The core mission of the Red Cross is to protect and assist civilian and military victims of armed conflicts worldwide, but Zimbabwe’s health system has deteriorated so much that Brack said they had begun slowly increasing humanitarian assistance. He is quoted saying: "We have started setting up health institutions and organising training for health personnel in the remote areas as they are the worst affected by the brain drain."

Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said health service has collapsed. Primrose Matambanadzo, a spokesperson for the ZADHR, said hospitals were not accepting patients so the system cannot be described as anything but collapsed. She explained that Junior Doctors in Harare officially went on strike on Friday. Their colleagues in Bulawayo are still trying to decide whether to strike officially, while many are staying home saying they cannot afford transport costs. Matambanadzo said nurses are also on strike while negotiations with the health ministry continue. Senior doctors are not officially on strike but they are unable to work without the nurses and junior doctors. The same applies for specialists such as physiologists and radiologists.

Matambanadzo said the health workers are earning a maximum of Z$400,000 while the Poverty Datum Line is currently estimated to be over Z$2 million. She believes the salaries now need to be updated or upgraded on a monthly basis to reflect the economic situation in the country.