STRIKING Zimbabwean doctors on Sunday urged Vice President Constantino Chiwenga to institute respectful engagement between health workers and the government.
Doctors spoke following Chiwenga’s arrival home Saturday morning after spending nearly four months in China receiving medical treatment and immediately turned his guns on striking doctors.
The Vice President touched down at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and told journalists that he was now fit and “raring to go and join the team to build our country.
“We have to work. We have the resources – we must utilise them and work and build our country. That’s the message we want to give to our people; that it will not help now and again to go on strike. You strike against what? Let’s work and build our country,” Chiwenga told ZBC after he was received by the Chinese Deputy Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhao Baogang.
Doctors downed tools on September 3, demanding that their salaries be pegged at the prevailing interbank rate as a precondition for their return to work.
It is not known how much Chiwenga’s four months medical treatment in China cost the tax payer, but observers estimate the figure to be a million, if not millions of United States dollars.
Majority of doctors in Zimbabwe earn less than US$100 per month.
“We are happy and we are relieved that our Vice President is now well, and we want to extend our gratitude to the Chinese doctors. We welcome him home,” Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) said in a statement on Sunday.
“It is our sincere hope that the Vice President will now take the opportunity to look into the Zimbabwean health care system and get things back to normal, beginning with ensuring decent salaries for the healthcare staff and working towards the uplifting of our system to first world standards.”
Zimbabwe’s health system is at its lowest ebb after the country’s Health Service Board discharged hundreds of doctors for absenting themselves from duty without leave or reasonable cause for days ranging from five or more.
The doctors are also demanding that government capacitates hospitals with basic health services to enable them save lives.
A total of 516 out of 1 601 medical doctors employed in the public sector are expected to appear before the disciplinary tribunals soon.
Doctors have said they want to go back to work, but were without the means to do so.
