Zimbabwe doctors, nurses strike over pay

Zimbabwe doctors, nurses strike over pay

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JUNIOR doctors and nurses at Zimbabwe's major state hospitals have gone on strike to press for higher pay and improved working conditions, their spokesperson said on Sunday.

"All we want are salaries that can sustain us. Given the economic situation we realise giving any figures will not work so we are not proposing any figures," Hospital Doctors' Association president Amon Severengi told reporters.

"We also want conditions that will be an incentive for us to remain at work."

The strike by at least 350 doctors left some wards without doctors and others were staffed by a few available senior doctors, trainee nurses and medics from the military.

An AFP correspondent saw some patients waiting in the outpatients hall at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the country's major state hospital, uncertain whether they would be seen by a doctor.

The doctors started a go-slow protest last week, providing minimal service before they went on a full-fledged strike on Friday, according to their union.

Severegi said the doctors' union held meetings with Health Minister David Parirenyatwa and officials from the health services board on Sunday but failed to reach an agreement.

"They are trying their best to address our grievances. They have come up with their own offers which fall short of what we would require."

Zimbabwean doctors last went on strike in May this year demanding substantial pay rises to keep pace with the country's galloping inflation rate, saying they were earning less than the equivalent of US$400 a month.

The doctors went back to work the following month after a compromise agreement with the government but the rate of inflation, now officially at 7 893 percent, rapidly rendered the agreement redundant.

There was no immediate comment available from the health ministry. - AFP
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