Mortuaries overflow with bodies as doctors’ strike continues

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 January 2007

The President of the Zimbabwe’s Doctors for Human Rights has issued a stark warning that senior consultants currently holding fort in the absence of junior doctors are no longer coping with the extra workload.

Dr Douglas Gwatidzo told us from Harare on Tuesday the standoff between government and the junior doctors spells doom for the whole nation if it is not resolved soon.

He said consultants (senior doctors) currently manning the country’s major hospitals have become so overwhelmed some are working daylong shifts without a break. The doctors are spending all mornings at state hospitals before attending to their private surgeries in the afternoon. At night they go back to the hospitals to work on emergencies.

With the doctors strike now in its fifth week, we are getting reports that hospital mortuaries are now overflowing with bodies as more and more people die from lack of treatment. And to make matters worse, a simple burial in a local cemetery in the least expensive coffin now costs Z$400 000. This is the same as six months salary for one of the doctors presently on strike.

Government’s response to the crisis has been castigated by many analysts and the situation was made worse on Monday with reports that Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has taken time off from work at the height of the crippling strike, to go on holiday.

The doctors are demanding a salary of Z$5 million a month and have vowed not to return to work until their demands are met. Dr Gwatidzo has urged the government to act quickly before the situation becomes irreversible.

‘I think the government is wise enough to realise that the few consultants working in hospitals will eventually get exhausted and cease to function as the body needs to rest. I sincerely believe a solution will be found soon. But I think we have failed as a nation to deliver health to the people,’ said Dr Gwatidzo.

The Doctors for Human Rights are urging the government to at least settle for the minimum standards required for the doctors to survive. They believe the government has been slow to act because they fear a pay increase for the doctors will set off a chain reaction in the civil service which is also reeling from being underpaid.