Doctors’ strike set to continue as government ignores ultimatum

By Tichaona Sibanda

26 July 2006

The government has been warned it should be prepared to face the consequences if it decides not to engage the striking doctors to resolve the crisis. Thedoctors resolved today to continue with the strike amid suspicion that government has adopted ‘a wait and see attitude’ in the belief the industrial action will crumble.

President of the Hospitals Doctors Association Dr Kuda Nyamutukwa said Health authorities have ‘stretched their patience to the limit’ and as a result they agreed unanimously to fight to the end regardless of loss of human life. He said they regretted any casualties as a result of the strike, but said if government cared about the welfare of its citizens, they should swallow their pride and look at the doctors’ grievances as a matter of urgency.

‘Right now we are a danger to our patients. You can’t function properly when you have other things in your head like where you going to get money to pay for your child’s school fees or buy bread for your family,’ Nyamutukwa said.

The junior doctors took their fight against government to the High Court on Monday after the Ministry of Health failed to respond to their 24-hour ultimatum. They were demanding that government repeal a new law that instructs the medical and dental practitioners’ council not to issue certificates of good standing. A certificate of good standing is a recommendation letter that doctors use to look for jobs in and outside the country.

As government is facing a serious crisis in the medical field with the exodus of doctors seeking greener pastures, the ministry of Health, as a stop gap measure, came up with the piece of legislation that allows the medical and dental practitioners’ council to withhold certificates of good standing to all junior doctors.

The doctors are arguing that government does not have a legal basis for withholding the certificates and the doctors had therefore given them an ultimatum to withdraw that legislation.