| The best Zimbabwe news site on the world wide web |  |
| NEWS |
| FORUMS |
| NEWS ANALYSIS |
| READERS' FORUM |
The human face of doctors' strike
By
Torby Chimhashu
SAMUEL
Parirenyatwa, the late father of Health and Child Welfare Minister,
David, must be surely turning in his grave.
His good name, which ironically was given to the country's biggest referral
hospital, Parirenyatwa Hospital, formerly Andrew Flemming, has been
soiled by the lack of government's will to redress the striking doctors'
plight.
And more critically, it is his son, David, who has failed on more than
five occasions to create conditions that make the health delivery system
function in Zimbabwe without putting the lives of patients at risk.
Junior doctors have been striking over poor salaries and working conditions
for the last 37 days and no one cares, including David Parirenyatwa.
For younger David, a week is not over until he has had his favourite
Johnnie Walker (Red Label) whisky at a quiet but popular African restaurant
just before Avondale shopping centre.
The restaurant is a stone throw from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals
where hundreds of patients have died and others are almost breathing
their last owing due to the absence of doctors.
On Saturday, New Zimbabwe.com came face to face with the grim reality
of what the industrial action by junior doctors and Parirenyatwa's snail's
pace in dealing
with the crisis, has caused.
Emaciated patients slept on the floor as a strong stench filled the
wards as a result of wounds on untreated victims of infectious and other
contagious
diseases.
The nurses doing duty have to cope with little supplies of medicine
and long hours that are punctuated by poor lighting and work overload.
Sofia Makwenje, a young mother who got married six years ago, is a graphic
example of the collapse of the health delivery system in Zimbabwe.
Her 4 year-old daughter, Olinda, is slowly dying from cancer.
She lies prostrate on a small bed with each passing hour drawing her
closer to death. There is no-one to treat her. She commutes from Kuwadzana
to
Parirenytwa hospital three times a day to be with her daughter.
"It is really an agonising experience, watching your daughter waste
away each
day because a doctor who is supposed to treat her keeps changing stories,"
says Sofia.
"My daughter has been here at Parirenyatwa since 8 January but
she is yet to
be attended to. Her doctor, Professor Chidzonga has suggested we take
her to his surgery so that he can attend to her.
"That has been
his story since. Here my daughter is supposed to be treated for free
because is under five years. Professor Chidzonga would rather have her
at his surgery where he has already suggested we pay close to a million
dollars as top up on her medical aid.
"We don't have the money. Professor Chidzonga has indicated his
own charges would rise to about $3 million. We don't have that kind
of money. The doctor cannot simply
treat her.
"Others with money have been fortunate. Their children have been
given surgery at the theatre here. For three weeks we have been here,
the story has been the same: bring your child to the surgery."
Her daughter first developed a tumor just above her left eye in December.
Upon consultations, the Makwenje family was told Olinda had cancer and
it needed surgery to be treated.
They brought her to Parirenyatwa on January 5, 2007, before she got
admitted on January 8.
The child who looked pale has since been paralysed and now speaks with
difficulties.
She has developed a big pound of strange flesh below her chin. Specialist
Professor Chidzonga says she can be cured through surgery but without
money and a visit to his surgery, there is nothing he can do.
While senior doctors such as Chidzonga, see a window of opportunity
to make money through visits to their surgeries, David Parirenyatwa
fiddles with twitchy fingers in the company of hangers-on.
Patients bear the brunt of a corrupt and cruel system that has reduced
the once efficient health delivery care to a house of death and misery.
On Friday, Parirenyatwa said the government had worked out good packages
for the striking junior doctors, barely 24 hours after an announcement
that they had been fired.
"The intern doctors have not been fired. There is a procedure that
has to be
followed before they are dismissed from work and I am making a fatherly
appeal for them to return to work," Parirenyatwa told journalists.
He added: "We have worked out an attractive package for everyone,
but we are not in a position to publicly reveal what we have offered
everyone because this affects a lot of things."
While Parirenyatwa was parroting, the President of the Hospital Doctors’
Association, Dr Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, said the striking doctors had
been told that a "memorandum" ordering their dismissal had
been issued, but they were still waiting for formal letters to this
effect.
The pain and suffering of patients and relatives continues without an
end in sight to the lack of decisive action from Parirenyatwa.
Life is sacrosanct, precious and does not need a show of too many sweet
words that turn to weeping and mourning as has been the case in the
hospitals.
Little Olinda Makwenje, at 4, has had her life thrown into disarray.
She has become an opportunity to make money for some medical practitioners,
regardless of her sorry condition.
There are others whose limbs have been broken either in accidents,
disputes or domestic fights. They find themselves facing a frightening
road to hell in Hospitals at the moment.
For a junior or intern doctor, a paltry salary of $56 000 is a sign
of demeaning attitude by the employer.
For some senior doctors, a dying patient at a government hospital is
best treated at their surgery or else they wait till the cows come home.
And for Parirenyatwa, a glass of double Johnnie Walker Red Label scotch
whisky, is not bad after a day's work...even when doctors are on strike.
If you wish to assist or help Olinda and her family, please call the parents on +26391 652 583 or those who wish to make anonymous donations can deposit their contributions to the account held by Olinda's father Mr Gerald Makwenje, BARCLAYS BANK, ACCOUNT NUMBER 259 828 723 67
JOIN
THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com
All material copyright newzimbabwe.com
Material may be published or reproduced in any form with appropriate credit to this website