By Francis Rwodzi | The Zimbabwean |
It never rains but pours for the troubled Public Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) as doctors at the parastatal’s West End Hospital have terminated their services with immediate effect, effectively crippling operations.
The move comes at a time when some permanent doctors at the hospital are also on strike.
When the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) visited the hospital, a visibly confused general manager Dr Maulana and the operations director Dr Mapesa could be seen frantically trying to attend to patients in the casualty section but it was evident they were fighting a lost cause.
In a letter dated 23 November 2015, West End Locum Casualty Officers said that they are no longer able to provide their services citing a chain of unpaid salaries and unfulfilled promises.
“We have collectively decided that we cannot continue to work in the absence of payment for work from previous months. We will therefore join and support the strike action undertaken by our permanent colleagues.
“We have made previous communication to this matter and have been promised payments which until now have not materialized, “the officers said.
“Any move towards payment of our salaries will promptly encourage us to get back to work as zealously as we have always done,” concluded the officers.
Pharmacists and laboratory technicians have also indicated that they will soon join their colleagues since they are also affected. Doctors who spoke to ZHDA publications said they were last paid salaries in June 2015 despite the fact that PSMAS had the luxury to pay minister David Parirenyatwa in advance for work he has not done.
The doctors accuse Dr Maulana of ignoring them and threatening them with dismissal if they do not turn up for work but the officers are adamant that they are as good as unemployed since they have not been paid in six months.
“As it stands, it’s almost like we are not employed since there was is money coming anyway,” said one of the angry doctors. “When we came on board, we came for money not charity. We do charity elsewhere not locums. They think they can hire new locums, they can try that route but it will not work. No one wants to labor for nothing especially at West End where there are high patient volumes,” the doctors fumed.
Operations at West End hospital have virtually collapsed and it seems the management is also clueless on how to handle the crisis which is now affecting innocent patients who have been paying PSMAS diligently over the years.
The ZHDA condemns the latest developments at West End and vindicates the Association’s calls for the dissolution of the web of corruption bedeviling the health sector led by minister Parirenyatwa who shamelessly abused his authority to siphon US$100 000 from PSMAS at a time when the parastatal is failing to pay its own workers.
