By Own Correspondent| Graduate doctors have turned down the employment offer by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Government tried in vain to recruit recently-graduated doctors but the overture was spurned out of hand as the graduates insisted that the government should, first of all, resolve the grievances raised by their striking colleagues.

In a post-dated letter directed to the Ministry of Health, the graduates wrote:

“We as the just finished graduates the Medicine (MBChB) programme note with grave concern the ongoing impasse between our senior colleagues (Houseman officers, Registrars and Government Medical Officers) and the ministry of health and child welfare. We are greatly disturbed by the ministry’s efforts to undermine the genuine grievances raised by our fellow doctors and the move to try and recruit us to cover the gap created.

We, therefore, want to categorically state that we are in full support of our senior colleagues and believe in dialogue rather than duress to resolve the on-going impasse. We are therefore available to offer our valued service once the ongoing impasse has been resolved with respect to the medical profession.

We also note the efforts by the Ministry to recruit us through the terms severely manipulated contract which is driven towards suppressing workers’ rights. We again bemoan this and wish to inform the Ministry and all relevant stakeholders that we can only be employed into a fair and just environment where the workers are allowed to express their rights in full. As such, all the newly incorporated amendments must be removed forthwith before we can assume duty.

We kindly await for the ministry to address the above-cited issues in full and in the same vein discourage the unnecessary phone calls being made to our membership to arm-twist us into an unfair working environment. Negotiations on our behalf shall be done through the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association.”