By A Correspondent|  The below report released on Christmas day names the government for allegedly looting donor funds they regularly receive in USDs, converting them to useless RTGS currency. FULL TEXT: 

PRESS STATEMENT BY THE ZHDA ON THE IMPASSE BETWEEN DOCTORS AND GOVERNMENT

25 DECEMBER 2018
The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) would like to update its members, the press, members of the public and various stakeholders on the impasse between doctors and the government. Following the press statement issued by the Minister of Health and Child Care, Hon. O. Moyo, we would like to set the record straight so as to avoid misinfoming our fellow citizens who may be hoodwinked into believing that the ministry is being sincere in its dealings with doctors.

1. Drugs and Medical Sundries
The said drugs which have been supposedly stocked at Natpharm have not reached any of our government institutions. If indeed the drugs and protective clothing are there, our members have made it clear that these should be seen at hospitals. This comes against a background of several promises of medicines and equipment made by the ministry since January this year, with none being fulfilled.

In addition, the stated stocks will not last our institutions long (a month to two at most), and we have requested the ministry set targets and provide timelines as to …when the target stocks will be reached, but to no avail.

2.RemuneratIon

According to the collective bargaining agreement 2 (CBA 2) of March 2018, our salaries and allowances are pegged in United States Dollars (USD). The employer has been countlessly breaching this CBA, firstly by applying it selectively across the health workers, secondly by implementing it unfairly, then unilaterally slashing on call allowances of middle level and senior doctors. The ministry did not heed our call to rectify these but has gone on to unilaterally decide to pay us in RTGS. This is a clear violation of the CBA and all we ask is the employer to honour the legally binding contract and pay us in USD. The minister went on to misinform the nation that the least paid doctor earns USD 1800. This is not true because we do not earn USD, and the association is yet to see a junior colleague who earns $1800. We do not know where the minister got this figure. Our members take home an average monthly package of way less than this, with the bulk of it being the on call allowance of around $1000 which the doctor is paid at an hourly rate for working non-stop during ungodly hours of the night.

This is the same allowance which we requested that it be raised from $7.50/hr, in line with the 2014 promise by the ministry to raise it to at least $10/hr. This promise has not been fulfilled to date.

Furthermore, the government through the ministry has been receiving health retention allowances (donor funds) quartely in foreign currency, whilst paying these to health workers in RTGS currency. The donors have since requested that the ministry facilitates the opening of Nostro FCAs for our members, and the ministry is trying to use this as a bargaining chip when they are not entitled to do so.

3. Unfreezing of posts

Noting that junior doctors are employed on a contract basis, we requested that the ministry avail posts for employment after the contract, as one cannot go into private practice soon after but requires a mandatory one year in full time government employment. The govemment states that they have availed these but there is no documented evidence or concurrence that has been furnished to us or our members to that effect. We requested the ministry to avail the evidence for these posts through a legally binding forum. These posts will ensure that staffing levels improve at all govemment hospitals to enable quality health service delivery.

We also note that the minister avoided stipulating working hours for middle level and senior doctors, despite our request to have these specified dating back as far as January 2018. This ensures that the system of overworking the few available doctors without compensation is perpetuated. We currently have doctors who work over 36 hours non stop.

4. Vehicle Loan scheme

The ministry has not comrnited in writing on a legally binding forum to provide this scheme to all doctors, and the stated dates of operationalisation are very vague.

5. Availability of fuel

Once again our fellow citizens have been lied to that fuel has been made available for doctors. Most hospitals have not seen or heard of this said fuel by the Minister. In actual fact, Mpilo hospital ran out of generator fuel recently for the hospital generator.

6. Supemumerary registrars.

The ministry has been taking advantage of senior doctors in specialist training who are not employed by the government. Due to ‘limited training spaces, some of our registrars have opted to train outside the employment of the ministry but continually see government patients without remuneration. It is unfair for the ministry to delegate this issue to MOHTE rather than create posts for their own. In the same vein, the employer has failed its main mandate to protect the welfare of workers if they cannot protect junior staff from victimization by their superiors
Negotiations for doctors and other health workers’ welfare take place a the Health Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel (HSBNP.), guided by statutory instrument III of 2006. The employer has not taken this forum seriously and since the first of December only three fruitless meetings have been held. What the minister is spreading are just informal discussions that have not reached this forum and are flawed, far from implementation and tantamount to propaganda.

To further show their lack of seriousness, the employer has failed to address issues but instead taken the association to court and ordered members to resume work disgruntled. Our membership has stated firmly that they will not risk the lives of patients by working under duress whilst disgruntled, and will not return to work in potentially hazardous spaces. Moreso, the doctors did not receive their December salaries and are incapacitated to go to work.

The response by the employer has been to suspend most of our members, pending hearings. This brutal, hard stance will not bring any fruit towards resolving the impasse, but instead is regressive. Following this move, middle level and senior doctors in nine (9) provinces have withdrawn the services and will only resume work when these members are reinstated and meaningful negotiations are underway. This means that most district and provincial hospitals will operate at minimum capacity, if at all.

The Health Service Board is playing politics with the Iives of our fellow countrymen, throwing a legal charade whilst failing to address the issues affecting our health sector. It is our view that the ministry and the Health Services Board have failed their mandate, and we hereby call for the dissolution of the Health Service Board and the setting up of an independent Health Service Commission.

We will only return to work when the government treats our health sector with the delicacy end professionalism It deserves.
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