ZIMBABWE: Nurses' strike deepens health crisis

JOHANNESBURG, 25 November 2003 (IRIN) - Public hospitals in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, were on Tuesday discharging patients and closing wards as a result of a nationwide nurses' strike. The nurses joined doctors at the weekend in a strike for higher wages, deepening the crisis of Zimbabwe's underfunded public health system. A visit by IRIN on Tuesday to the city's two largest public hospitals - Harare and Parirenyetwa - found that new patients were being turned away and outpatient departments had been closed. Some wards at the hospitals were empty and only the maternity wings remained open. A few senior nurses and student nurses were still on duty at both hospitals, but patients who could afford the fees were being referred to private clinics. Doctors who earn between Zim $263,305 and Zim $807,735 per month (about US $330 and US $1,000 at the official rate, US $48 and US $147 at parallel market rates) want their salaries hiked by 8,000 percent, while nurses say they will not return to work until the government responds to their pay proposals from last year. Nurses want their new salaries pegged at Zim $1.6 million (US $2,000 at the official rate, US $290 at the parallel rate) in the face of hyperflation, now standing at close to 600 percent. Zimbabwe's nurses last month joined the doctors' strike but returned to work after they were promised an 800 percent pay rise. However, when the nurses received their November salaries, they discovered that there had been no increase. "When we went to the bank to collect our salaries, we were disgusted to find that we had been tricked into going back to work because the salaries had not been adjusted," a nurse at Harare Hospital told IRIN. The Zimbabwe Nurses Association, the union representing nurses, held a meeting on Friday in Harare and decided to rejoin the striking doctors. Health and child welfare minister, David Parirenyatwa, has acknowledged that salaries in the health sector need to be addressed. "Given the state of our economy, I want health workers to get better salaries, but striking is not the solution. We should have a round-table conference and put the health of our people as the first priority," he told the official Herald newspaper. Medical services in Zimbabwe have been under severe strain over the last year. The chronic shortage of foreign currency for equipment and essential drugs has worsened the situation. Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have reportedly left the country in large numbers in search of better pay. In a related development, the government on Tuesday deployed army medical staff to help out at state hospitals hit by the strike, Reuters reported. However, health officials said the move was not likely to have an impact as military hospitals were also understaffed because of unfavourable remunerations.