Doctors at Zimbabwe’s two main referral hospitals have gone on strike demanding better working conditions and higher remuneration. The doctors at Harare and Parirenyatwa hospitals, both of which are in the capital, are demanding the Health Ministry to supply them with adequate drugs, tubes, gloves, drips and cotton wool which have been scarce over the past months.
According to Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a local pressure group, the doctors accuse the government of turning hospitals into “death halls†rather than treatment centers due to these acute shortages.
In addition to the better working conditions, the doctors are demanding higher salaries to beat inflation which currently stands at more than 11 million percent.
Last month the doctors earned 600 Zimbabwe dollars, equivalent to US$30 at the official exchange rate but less than US$2 at the more realistic parallel market rate of 410 Zimdollars to the US greenback.
It was still unclear how much the doctors are demanding, but according to a source, they are proposing that their salaries be awarded in US dollars since the economy has informally dollarised.
Source African Press Agency
